[Correction of disordered cerebral blood flow autoregulation in atherosclerosis]

The work deals with studying the parameters of autoregulation of the cerebral blood flow in a total of 127 patients subdivided into four groups. Clinical Group I consisted of thirty 45-to-70-year-old male patients (mean age 55.13 +/- 6.44 years) presenting with no signs of systemic atherosclerosis (CAD, chronic arterial insufficiency of the lower extremities, cerebrovascular insufficiency) or any other chronic diseases (chronic cardiac, pulmonary or renal insufficiency, chronic hepatitis, etc.). Clinical Group II comprised 32 patients diagnosed as having varying-degree chronic arterial insufficiency on the background of atherosclerosis obliterans of the lower-limb arteries (average age 57.46 +/- 5.15 years). Clinical Group III was composed of 30 patients presenting with different degrees of chronic cerebral ischaemia and having haemodynamically significant unilateral atherosclerotic lesions of the internal carotid artery (mean age 55.39 +/- 6.25 years), with the Control Group enrolling thirty-five 20-to-25-year-old volunteers. The findings of the work showed that the patients with atherosclerosis had significant impairments of the cerebral blood flow autoregulation, whose type and degree appeared to depend upon localization of the lesion. In the patients with peripheral atherosclerosis, a 10-day therapeutic course of intravenous administration of alpha-lipoic acid (Berlithion) at a dose of 600 mg daily could be used to correct disordered autoregulation of the cerebral vessels and may be considered from the position of preoperative preparation of such patients for reconstructive vascular interventions on the aorta and lower-limb arteries. Efficacy of alpha-lipoic acid (Berlithion) on the alterations in the cerebral blood flow autoregulation in patients presenting with haemodynamic stenosis of the internal carotid artery is insignificant, in connection with which such patients require surgical restoration of the patency of the major cerebral arteries.