Shake my head
I seem to hear the sound of the sea
This sentence is often used as a joke
means “head water”
But in fact
We all have water in our heads
But if there is too much water
There will be real problems
Recent
Zhijiang Campus of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine
Several patients with unsteady walking, very forgetful, and even incontinence came in one after another
Actually they are all targeted by a disease called “normal pressure hydrocephalus”
https://Uncle 58 is “demented”?
The 58-year-old Uncle Chen (pseudonym) is from Fuyang. He opened a small shop at the entrance of the village when he was young. He is diligent and social, and together with his wife, he manages the business of the small shop well. Prosperous, brought up a pair of children. However, since October last year, his wife discovered that Uncle Chen, who has always been diligent and cheerful, was not quite right.
“In the beginning, I stumbled and stumbled, and I would fall without any obstacles. Later, I started to lose things and I was very forgetful. Ask him, he doesn’t know what’s going on.” Sister Chen said.
Sister Chen asked Uncle Chen to go to the local hospital for a check-up, but Uncle Chen always felt that there was nothing wrong with him, but his memory was poor as he got older, and his legs and feet became inconvenient. In February of this year, it was rare for the family to sit together and chat. Talking about Uncle Chen’s situation, the careful daughter Baidu searched and found that her father’s symptoms were very like “Alzheimer’s disease” (senile dementia) strong>, after repeatedly communicating with Uncle Chen, I finally came to the local hospital for treatment.
After a preliminary examination, the local hospital said that Uncle Chen’s symptoms were very similar to Alzheimer’s disease, but it is recommended to go to a higher-level hospital for a detailed examination. So they drove to the Zhijiang Campus of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine.
https://Too much water in my head?
Chief Physician Zheng Jiesheng, deputy director of the Neurosurgery Department of the First Hospital of Zhejiang University, received Uncle Chen, learned about Uncle Chen’s medical history in detail, and conducted further examinations on him. According to the examination results, it is considered that he is very It may be a condition called “normal pressure hydrocephalus”.
“Normal pressure hydrocephalus, also known as normal pressure hydrocephalus, and what people often call Alzheimer’s disease (senile dementia) in clinical manifestations They are very similar in appearance, and most of the patients are over 60 years old, which is more likely to be confused with Alzheimer’s disease. The two even show similar findings on imaging tests such as head CT and MRI, and both have enlarged ventricles. However, in Alzheimer’s disease, brain atrophy mainly causes ventricle enlargement, while normal pressure hydrocephalus not only has ventricle enlargement, but also changes in ventricle shape.” said Deputy Director Zheng Jiesheng.
What is normal pressure hydrocephalus? And why does it cause Alzheimer’s performance?
In layman’s terms, there is indeed “water” in our skulls. This water is actually cerebrospinal fluid, which circulates between the brain and spinal cord. Mainly play a role in supporting, protecting and nourishing the brain and spinal cord. Under normal circumstances, there will be about 100-150ml of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain, and the human body will produce 300-500ml of cerebrospinal fluid every day, and it will also absorb so much cerebrospinal fluid to maintain dynamic balance. When this balance is disrupted due to disease or accident, there is too much intracranial cerebrospinal fluid (which can be understood as too much water in the brain), the ventricles and cisterns that store cerebrospinal fluid are It will become larger and put pressure on normal brain tissue, resulting in a series of symptoms such as unsteady walking and “dementia”, which are similar to Alzheimer’s disease.
“Hydrocephalus is a common neurosurgery disease. From the perspective of intracranial pressure, hydrocephalus can be divided into high intracranial pressure and normal pressure hydrocephalus, literally It can be understood from the above that high intracranial pressure hydrocephalus can be quickly diagnosed by intracranial pressure detection, while normal pressure hydrocephalus is very easy to be misdiagnosed due to normal intracranial pressure and no obvious symptoms >.” said chief physician Zhan Renya, director of neurosurgery at the First Hospital of Zhejiang University, “Its diagnosis needs to be combined with the patient’s symptoms, physicalThe lumbar puncture test (a certain amount of cerebrospinal fluid is released through a lumbar puncture) is an important method for diagnosing the disease. “
Normobaric hydrocephalus can be divided into idiopathic and secondary, and secondary may be caused by intracranial hemorrhage, traumatic brain injury, meningitis, brain tumor, etc.< /strong>, if you have the above diseases, you should be especially alert to the occurrence of hydrocephalus. The etiology of idiopathic hydrocephalus is currently unknown, and it is more common in the elderly over 60 years old, so some scholars call it “adult chronic hydrocephalus” or “senile hydrocephalus”. A related study in Japan showed that the incidence of idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus in the elderly population over 61 years old can reach 1.1%, accounting for 5% of the causes of dementia.
In order to further confirm the diagnosis, the neurosurgery expert team performed a lumbar puncture and fluid test on Uncle Chen, and the walking gait improved significantly, which also made it clearer that the normal pressure hydrocephalus was caused by normal pressure hydrocephalus. diagnosis. After undergoing lateral ventriculo-peritoneal shunt surgery, Uncle Chen’s forgetfulness and unsteady walking were significantly improved, and he was discharged home smoothly.
https://This condition is highly misdiagnosed
Be aware of the following
In addition to Uncle Chen, recently, the Zhijiang Campus of the First Hospital of Zhejiang University has successively received a number of patients with normal pressure hydrocephalus. One patient suffered from forgetfulness and walking. The symptoms such as instability have been around for nearly a year, but neither myself nor my family paid much attention to it. It was not until I developed incontinence that I was sent to be diagnosed.
After consultation and examination, Uncle Chen did not have intracranial hemorrhage, traumatic brain injury and other related diseases, which belonged to idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus. A few years ago, he hit his head on the corner of the table. Since there was no bleeding at the time and no serious symptoms occurred later, he didn’t care. Experts said his normal pressure hydrocephalus was likely related to that head blow.
Although normal pressure hydrocephalus can look like Alzheimer’s, the good news is that this dementia is reversible and if diagnosed and treated early, it can Some people can recover. However, if the disease is allowed to progress until it becomes severe, the patient’s brain tissue will not be able to fully return to its normal form. Even with treatment, various degrees of neurological function and limb movement disorders will remain.
Experts from the First Hospital of Zhejiang University reminded that people over 60 years old who have symptoms similar to Alzheimer’s such as unsteady walking, poor bowel and bladder control, cognitive impairment, etc., should go to a specialist for investigation in addition to In addition to Alzheimer’s disease, if the effect is not obvious, it is also necessary to pay attention to whether there may be normal pressure hydrocephalus, otherwise it will be a pity to delay treatment.
In addition, if there has been a head collision, cerebral hemorrhage, brain trauma, etc., even if the treatment has been completed or there are no obvious symptoms at that time, it is necessary to be vigilant for the occurrence of normal pressure brain in the follow-up. standing water.