5560 patients with the diagnosis “Other cerebral vascular diseases” per 100 000 of elderly population were registered in RF in 2017. Usually this is a code for chronic brain ischemia (CBI) – the most popular diagnosis in Russian neurological practice. However, diagnostic criteria of CBI are not well defined and need to be ascertained. Recent studies show that the most reliable clinical feature of CBI could be cognitive impairment. It is developed before other clinical signs and correlate with severity of vascular brain lesions. Typically, cognitive impairment is subcortical with prominent bradyphrenia, attentional, dysexecutive and visuospatial deficit and relative sparing of memory. However clinical diagnosis of CBI could be only hypothetical. Diagnosis should be verified by MRI or other visualization technic. Diagnosis is verified if neuroimaging revealed silent strokes, microbleeds and vascular leukoencephalopathy. The most important objective of chronic brain ischemia management is the control of basic vascular disease. Besides this, pathogenetic therapy should be performed to improve cerebral microcirculation, neuronal metabolism and to provide neuroprotection. There is positive data on dipyridamole usage in chronic brain ischemia. It has desagregative, vasotropic, antioxidative and antiinflammation properties. Dypiridamole treatment in CBI patients lead to decrease of neuropsychiatric symptoms and improvement of well-being.

The paper presents the current etiopathogenetic classification of chronic cerebrovascular diseases (CVD) and discusses the role of hypertension, cerebral amyloid angiopathy, and genetically determined syndromes in the development of this pathological condition. It gives recommendations for the neuroradiological diagnosis of chronic CVD in accordance with the international standards. The paper discusses the clinical manifestations of chronic CVD, primarily vascular cognitive impairment. It discusses international guidelines for the examination and treatment of patients with chronic CVD, as well as the rules for stroke prevention in this patient cohort. The possibilities of pathogenetically based therapy in decreasing the severity of vascular cognitive impairment in the presence of chronic CVD are also highlighted.

Evident anxiety-depressive disorders are being observed in at least one third of patients who have suffered a stroke. They significantly reduce the effectiveness of rehabilitation measures and secondary prevention that is why they require drug and non-drug correction. Anxiety-depressive disorders after a stroke can be caused by a psychological reaction to the disease, damage to the certain areas of the brain, primarily the anterior localization, and exacerbation of pre-stroke mental illness. In the rehabilitation period of stroke in the treatment of anxiety-depressive disorders apart from the classic antidepressants and tranquilizers are proven themselves well neurometabolic drugs with additional positive thymoleptic and anxiolytic effect.

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