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Cerebral microangiopathy, also called gliosis, is a common finding in brain magnetic resonances, especially in people over 40 years of age. This is because as the person ages, it is normal for some small vessels present in the brain to become blocked, giving rise to small scars in the brain.
However, in spite of corresponding to the obstruction of blood flow in these small vessels, the verification of gliosis in most cases does not represent health problems, being considered normal.However, when large amounts of microangiopathies are seen or when the person has one or more risk factors, it is important that the cause is investigated by the neurologist in order to indicate the most appropriate treatment.
Causes of microangiopathy
Microangiopathy happens mainly due to aging, in which there is obstruction of microvascularization of the brain, resulting in the formation of small scars that are visualized through magnetic resonance as small white dots in the brain.
In addition to aging, gliosis can also happen due to genetic changes and, therefore, some younger people may experience this change on magnetic resonance imaging, such as Multiple Sclerosis.
When can gliosis be considered a health problem?
Gliosis can be considered a sign of neurological changes when the person has high blood pressure, changes in cholesterol or frequently smokes. This is because these situations favor the obstruction of a greater number of vessels, which can cause more scars to form, which eventually aggregate and give rise to neurological changes, such as changes in language and cognition, dementia or ischemic stroke.
In addition, when a large number of microangiopathies are visualized, it is normally considered by the doctor the possibility that the person is about to have an ischemic stroke or be due to memory loss due to neurological diseases.
What to do
As microangiopathy is considered in most cases to be an imaging finding, no treatment or follow-up is required.
However, if a large amount of gliosis is found, it may be recommended by the doctor to perform other tests that help to identify the cause so that more appropriate treatment can be started.
In addition, it is important that people keep chronic diseases well controlled, such as hypertension, cholesterol and heart and kidney diseases, and maintain good health habits, such as regular physical activity and a healthy and balanced diet, so that it is possible to avoid the risk factors related to the increase in the amount of microangiopathies.