Idiopathic arterial hypotension: neurological abnormalities and cerebral and central hemodynamics

To study abnormalities of central and cerebral hemodynamics in chronic cerebrovascular pathology, 65 patients were examined with long-term stable idiopathic arterial hypotension (IAH), mean age of 40.2 (8.1) years. According to neurologic examination, all patients were distributed into two groups. The first group comprised 19 (29%) patients with somatoform disturbances, and the second group comprised 46 (71%) patients with cerebrovascular pathology: early signs of cerebral blood supply impairment and dyscirculatory encephalopathy, stage I. Patients from the second group were older and had longer hypotension anamnesis. Cerebral and central hemodynamics was examined with duplex ultrasonography of internal carotid arteries (ICA), vertebral arteries (VA) and medial cerebral arteries and with transthoracic echocardiography. In all patients ICA ultrasound showed moderate slowness of blood velocity and compensatory reduction of vascular resistance. There was no compensatory vasodilatation in VA, which resulted in considerable blood flow reduction, most expressed in the second group. The cardiac index was increased in both groups: in the first group due to increase in the left ventricular contractility and in the second group due to increase in the cardiac rate. Cerebrovascular disorders in patients with IAH are associated with age, duration of arterial hypotension, predominant deterioration of blood supply in the vertebral-basilar system and hyperkinetic state of central hemodynamics.