Arteriosclerosis and Hypertension, with Chapters on Blood Pressure: 3rd Edition.Warfield, Louis M. (Louis Marshall)
Science
Arteriosclerosis and Hypertension, with Chapters on Blood Pressure: 3rd Edition.
Warfield, Louis M. (Louis Marshall)
Arteries -- Diseases; Blood pressure
The attacks of pain from which this patient suffered for many years, the
hypertrophy of the left ventricle and the increased blood pressure were
thought to be directly due to the sclerosis of the abdominal vessels.
=Cerebral=
It has been stated that arteriosclerosis is a general disease, yet
certain systems of vessels may be affected far more than others, and
indeed there may be marked sclerosis at one part of the body and none
demonstrable at another part.
In advanced sclerosis there may be one or more of a series of accidents
due to embolism, thrombosis, or rupture of the vessels. Such conditions
as transient hemiplegia, monoplegia or aphasia may occur. The attacks
may come on suddenly and be over in a few minutes; what Allbutt calls
"Larval apoplexies." They may last from a few hours up to a day, and are
very characteristic. A patient aged 64 years with pipe stem radials and
tortuous hard temporals would be lying quietly in bed when suddenly he
would stiffen, the eyes would become fixed and the breathing cease. In a
few seconds consciousness returned, the patient would shake himself,
pass his hand over his brow and ask, "Where am I? Oh, yes, that's all
right." He had as many as thirty of these attacks in twenty-four hours,
none of them lasting over one minute. To just what such attacks are due,
it is hard to say. Some have attributed them to spasm of the smaller
blood vessels of the brain, but there have never been demonstrated in
the vessels any constrictor fibers.
There is a well recognized form of dementia caused by arteriosclerosis.
In general paralysis of the insane and in senile dementia the blood
vessels are always diseased. Milder grades of psychic disturbances are
accompanied by such symptoms as mental fatigue, persistent headaches,
vertigo, memory weakness and fainting. Aphasia, periods of excitement
and mental confusion occur in some. Later stages are at times
accompanied by inclination to fabulate, loss of judgment,
disorientation, narrowing of the external interests, episodes of
confusion and hallucinatory delirium.
The hemiplegias, monoplegias and paraplegias may occur again and again
and last for one or two days. Unless there has been rupture of the
vessels, there is complete recovery as a rule.
In persons who have arteriosclerosis with high tension attacks of
melancholia are seen. There are at the same time fits of depression,
insomnia, irritability, fretfulness, and a generally marked change in
disposition. When the tension is reduced by appropriate treatment these
symptoms disappear, to recur when the tension again becomes high. On the
contrary, attacks of mania are accompanied by low blood pressure. The
dizziness and vertigo in cerebral arteriosclerosis are probably due to
the stiffness of the vessels which prevents them from following closely
the variations of pressure produced by position, and thus, at times, the
brain is deprived of blood and a transient anemia occurs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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