health of the nervous system

Hypertensive encephalopathy: symptomatology

A type of encephalopathy that is usually temporary - that is reversible if treated in time and in the right way - is the so-called hypertensive encephalopathy .

This particular neurological disease is defined with the hypertensive adjective, as it is due to a serious morbid condition - known as malignant hypertension - which determines a very marked and sudden increase in arterial pressure .

Subsequent to several pathological states capable of suddenly raising the pressure of the arteries (among these are acute nephritis, eclampsia, essential arterial hypertension, pheochromocytoma, etc.), hypertensive encephalopathy appears 12-48 hours after the episode of malignant hypertension.

The very first symptom manifestation, which affects most patients (about 75%), is a severe headache .

Subsequently - usually several hours after the onset of headache - patients tend to show restlessness, altered state of consciousness, impaired judgment, memory loss (amnesia), confusion, drowsiness and stupor.

In case of non-treatment, this situation evolves further, leading to a worsening of the symptoms, even to the coma .

OTHER SYMPTOMS

Less frequently or discontinuously, hypertensive encephalopathy can also induce:

  • Irritability
  • He retched
  • Diplopia. It is the medical term used to indicate double vision of one or both eyes.
  • Various changes in vision, from blurred vision and narrowing of the visual field to color blindness and cortical blindness.
  • Episodes of epilepsy
  • Myoclonus. It is a set of involuntary tics that affect one or more muscles of the body.
  • Spasms of the limbs.
  • Hemiparesis. This is a partial loss of motor activity of one half of the body.
  • Intracerebral hemorrhage
  • Aphasia. It is the inability to produce or understand language.

Epidemiology

Hypertensive encephalopathy is a very rare neurological disease which, according to some clinical studies, would affect only 0.5-15% of patients suffering from malignant hypertension.

In general, people who develop malignant encephalopathy are hypertensive subjects of young or middle age.

As far as the most interested ethnic groups are concerned, Caucasian individuals are usually less at risk than black-skinned individuals, who tend moreover to suffer more from hypertension.