Diabetes und Gehirn

Abstract

Background: People with diabetes have a 2–4-fold increased risk of stroke. In women, this risk is even more pronounced. Purpose: This review describes and comments on data published between 2013 and 2015 about the influence of diabetes on the brain. Results: The current positive studies on mechanical thrombectomy in severe hemispheric stroke shows a paradigm shift towards this intervention. Lesions in the right insular and operculum regions have been found to be responsible for the development of poststroke hyperglycemia. Several studies showed no superiority of strict glycemic control by intravenous insulin in the acute phase of stroke compared with standard therapy. Multimodal measures for stroke prevention were able to reduce the stroke risk for diabetes patients by 50 % during the last 20 years. Diabetes also leads to an increased risk for the development of vascular dementia and for the neurodegenerative form of Alzheimer’s disease. Using multimodal interventions, a recent study showed an improvement in cognitive performance of individuals with a high risk for dementia.