Brain Ischemia

This monograph highlights modern concepts of brain ischemia and strategies of neuroprotective therapy. The first part of the book is devoted to mechanisms of ischemic brain damage. The authors present the results of their own clinical and experimental studies conducted in the last two decades, as well as the achievements of native and foreign neurological researches that open a new stage in understanding how reversible changes of blood flow and metabolism are transformed into a permanent morphological lesion, i.e. brain infarction. The most important advances in areas of ischemic energy failure, main mechanisms of the glutamate-calcium cascade, influence of metabolic acidosis on ischemic damage, delayed neuronal death connected with microglial activation, local inflammation, autoimmune reactions, trophic dysfunction, and apoptosis, as well as of reaction of the stress-mediating endocrine system to focal brain ischemia are shown in animals and humans, and the relevant literature is cited and critiqued. The book also explores topics that recently have experienced substantial growth, such as gene expression and subsequent molecular events in response to acute brain ischemia, connected with both tissue damage and reparation. The authors demonstrate not only universal features of the process of brain ischemia, but also individual peculiarities of its course in patients and analyse their reasons.