Many netizens told me with the magnetic report, what kind of disease is white matter degeneration? And I also asked me, how much does it take to develop actively treat? And how to prevent leukoencephalopathy?
1. What is white matter in the brain?
Before talking about leukocerebral disease, first of all, everyone needs to understand what leukocerebral matter is. The white matter of cerebral matter is an area where a large number of nerve fibers gather in our brain. Because the color of this area is lighter than other areas and is a little whiter, it is clinically called the white matter of cerebral matter.
Brain white matter consists of many bundle nerve fibers that transmit nerve impulses within spinal cord and between the spinal cord and various parts of the brain.
Here we also need to understand a professional term, what is demyelination ? We can compare nerve fibers to a wire, and the skin wrapped outside the wire can be compared to the myelin sheath of nerve fibers.
When the nerve fiber is demyelized for some reason, the nerve fiber cannot perform the transmission function it should have undertaken.
2. What are the dangers of leukoplasmosis?
leukomorphosis is actually a structural change in the brain. It is based on the demyelination of cells in the central nervous system of as the main pathological change. The lesions involve white matter tracts that specialize in the advanced nervous functions of the brain.
cerebral white matter lesions are relatively common brain lesions. They can be found at any age, and their symptoms can be without any symptoms to severe consequences.
Generally speaking, there are several situations after leukoplasmic lesions. First, human advanced cortical dysfunction is manifested as memory loss . Second, it is manifested as emotional disorders, and the patient may experience depression and anxiety. Third, sleep changes. It turns out that the patient may have slept well, but now he has insomnia or his sleep quality has decreased. Fourth, behavioral changes. Many people will experience behavioral changes after repeated leukoencephalopathy, which is a common symptom of leukoencephalopathy.
Of course, when leukoencephalopathy is severe or in special areas, focal neurological function changes such as hemiplegia and aphasia can also occur.
In addition, after severe leukoplasmic lesions, it may also lead to a series of dementia syndromes such as dementia, difficulty walking, and incontinence.
3. What causes white matter degeneration?
causes degeneration of cerebral white matter can be divided into congenital and acquired.
Congenital leukoplasmosis is a result of a distinct genetic tendency and a recessive inheritance pattern. Patients are affected by incomplete myelin development, which will cause insufficient secretion of oligodendrocytes in the central nervous system, which will lead to dystrophy of white matter and lead to abnormal functional conditions.
Acquired white matter degeneration mainly includes: immune system lesions, infectious factors, toxic lesions, and others.
When the patient's immune system is damaged, such as lymphocytes , mononuclear macrophages and other immune cells will attack spherical cells gathered near the white matter, which will lead to cerebral white matter lesions. Specific diseases include systemic lupus erythematosus , rheumatoid arthritis, etc.
HIV virus , neurosyphilis and other viruses will destroy or kill cells that produce myelin in the central nervous system, thereby inhibiting the formation of myelin. When the brain white blood cells cannot obtain sufficient nutrients for a long time, it will induce leukoplasmosis.
Common toxic lesions include alcohol poisoning, carbon monoxide poisoning, heavy metal poisoning, , etc. For patients with toxic lesions, if timely rescue measures are not obtained, it will significantly increase the risk of degenerative lesions in cerebral white matter.
Hypertension , diabetic , dyslipidemia , hyperhomocysteinemia, hyperuricemia, tumors, trauma, etc. can all cause this disease.
Some time ago, there was a young man who ate a toxic substance, fluoracetamide , which eventually led to toxic encephalopathy .Moreover, the symptoms he showed were very obvious. He had obvious neurological defects such as limb weakness, ataxia, forgetfulness, and decreased computing power.
4. To what extent does leukoplasmic lesions develop and need active treatment?
In clinical practice, leukocerebral lesions can be roughly divided into three levels.
First-grade mild lesions, that is, there are only dot-shaped abnormal signals in the white matter area in the brain.
Secondary moderate lesions refer to the white matter area in the brain where plaque-like abnormal signals have appeared, or some dot-like lesions have already fusion, or a single lesion has been greater than 3 mm.
Grade 3 severe lesions refer to lesions in the white matter area of the brain that have been fused into a large area of lesions. At this time, the patient's condition is often relatively serious.
Currently, for patients with primary leukoplasmic lesions without any symptoms, they can be temporarily observed and do not require any treatment. For patients with secondary and tertiary leukogram lesions, doctors recommend that everyone intervene as soon as possible and provide timely treatment.
5. How to prevent leukoplasmic lesions in advance?
- quit smoking and alcohol, because cigarettes, alcohol can cause external damage to brain nerves and increase the possibility of lesions in brain tissue.
- controls the levels of blood pressure and blood lipid . Increased blood pressure, blood lipid levels, etc. will increase the probability of atherosclerosis and induce the risk of pathological changes in cerebral white matter.
- performs more brain exercises. For the elderly, they can delay the process of brain tissue failure through reading, communication, and practicing calligraphy.
- avoids the occurrence of brain infections, brain trauma , stroke and other diseases.
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