Current Concepts of Cerebrovascular Disease -- Stroke

Abstract

HYPERTENSION produces most of its damage to the brain as a result of elevations of systolic blood pressure of varying severity for long periods of time.' •2 Ho we v? er, severe, acute hypertension can rapidly produce dra? matic and life-threatening situations. Hypertensive en? cephalopathy (HTE) is a syndrome which develops following a sudden but sustained elevation of systemic blood pressure to high levels and has characteristic clinical and pathological features which are clearly different from those of chronic hypertension. HTE usually occurs with little warning, as in eclampsia or acute nephritis. Less commonly, it results from an abrupt elevation of pressure in patients with chronic essential hypertension that has entered an accelerated or malignant phase.