[Intermittent hypoxia in the treatment of dyscirculatory encephalopathy]

An influence of intermittent hypoxia (IH) on antioxidant enzymes activity was investigated in 42 patients, aged 48.2 +/- 1.8 years, with 1-2-nd stage of dyscirculatory encephalopathy (DE) in the presence of I-II stage of arterial hypertension (AH). Patients with arterial pressure below 145/85 mmHg receiving basic antihypertensive drugs treatment were included in the study. Before IH, the patients showed increased total oxidant activity (TOA) as well as concentration of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBRS) in blood plasma and reduced activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GP) in erythrocytes comparing to control group (14 healthy subjects). In 27 patients, it was combined with increased peak systolic and peak diastolic blood flow rate in middle cerebral artery according to Doppler examination. After 10 days hypoxia training (60 min daily atmospheric air breathing alternated with 9-10 V% O2 hypoxic mixture breathing), TOA and TBRS were decreased by 39% and 25% respectively, whereas enzymes activity was increased as follows: SOD--by 29%; CAT--by 18%; GP--by 38%. The treatment resulted in reduction of peak systolic and peak diastolic blood flow rate in the meddle cerebral artery, decrease of frequency of headache episodes and in improvement of nighttime sleep and short-term memory. The results demonstrate a possibility for correction of oxidative homeostasis disturbances in patients with DE on the background of AH and can be beneficial for DE prevention and treatment.