The concept of comorbidity of dyscirculatory encephalopathy and vascular optical neuropathy (literature review)

The analysis of literature data on ischemic damage to the brain and the organ of vision was carried out in order to study etiological factors, pathogenetic processes, parallel flow and mutual influence of two nosological forms: dyscirculatory encephalopathy and vascular optic neuropathy. According to the World Health Organization, there is much more people suffering from cardiovascular diseases: atherosclerosis, hypertension, diabetes mellitus and coronary heart disease. These diseases result in ischemic damage to a number of vital organs, including the central nervous system and the visual analyzer. Chronic vascular pathology of both the brain and the eye is one of the leading causes of patients’ life quality decrease of and their disability. The “triggering” causes of brain and eye damage, according to researchers, are cerebral atherosclerosis, elevating/fluctuating blood pressure, coronary heart disease, and carbohydrate metabolism disorders. Disorders of the systemic blood supply caused by these etiological factors lead to a progressive lack of oxygen supply to organs and tissues, followed by the development of intracellular and cellular hypoxia, and an ischemic intracellular cascade of biochemical disorders leading to dysfunction and sometimes cell death.In addition to direct hypoxic-ischemic damage of the nervous and visual systems cells, endothelial dysfunction contributes to the progression of these diseases, leading to a pronounced change in the wall at the level of small vessels, a change in its reactivity and a violation of the coagulation properties of blood, and as a consequence, to a gradual accumulation of ischemic and secondary degenerative changes in brain and eye cells.Knowledge of etiological factors and patterns of development of brain and eye combined ischemic damage can allow clarifying the complex of diagnostic measures, developing preventive measures, as well as prescribe pathogenetically justified treatment of existing pathology.

Neurophysiological Changes in Patients with Discirculatory Encephalopathy Associated with Ischemic Optic Neuropathy

Background. The most common chronic cerebrovascular pathology is dyscirculatory encephalopathy, in which a decrease in blood supply due to damage to brachiocephalic vessels leads to damage to brain substances and analyzers, including visual, with the possible development of severe damage in the form of ischemic optic neuropathy. Many studies have been devoted to the relationship between atherosclerotic damage to the neck vessels and ischemic damage to the visual organ, but little attention has been paid to the study of the functional activity of the altered visual analyzer in patients with dyscirculatory encephalopathy, and the results are scattered. Aim. To conduct a comparative analysis of changes in neurophysiological parameters of the brain and visual analyzer in patients with dyscirculatory encephalopathy and patients with a combination of dyscirculatory encephalopathy and ischemic optic neuropathy. Materials and methods. 34 patients with the 2nd stage of dyscirculatory encephalopathy were examined and divided into two groups based on the presence/absence of ischemic optic neuropathy of various prescription periods. All patients underwent ultrasound scanning of neck vessels, visual fields determination, electroretinography, visual evoked potentials, and electroencephalogram. Results. The results revealed changes in a number of indicators in the group of patients with a combination of two diseases: more pronounced atherosclerotic lesion of brachiocephalic vessels, a decrease in the amplitude and the alpharhythm prevalence index, a decrease in oscillatory potentials, a change in latency and amplitudes the visual analyzer according, lengthening of time indicators with a simultaneous decrease in amplitudes and depression of retinal sensitivity. Conclusion. Patients with dyscirculatory encephalopathy complicated by ischemic optic neuropathy have a combined lesion of the brain and visual analyzer, which determines the severity of the detected changes and requires a comprehensive multidisciplinary approach to the treatment of these patients.