Symptoms
The location of the disease directly affects its symptoms. When the limbs are affected, lameness develops, pain, sensory disturbances, and tingling appear. Without treatment, the disease develops into gangrene and ultimately leads to amputation.
If the vessels of the heart are affected, coronary artery disease, arrhythmia, angina pectoris, pain and shortness of breath become manifestations.
When cerebral vessels are damaged, the signs are as follows:
- Memory impairment.
- Headache.
- Poor blood circulation in the brain.
- Dizziness.
- Decreased attention, speech impairment.
- Mental changes, dementia.
- Motor impairment.
Get diagnosed with atherosclerosis at Clinic No. 1
- Neurologist appointment
- Doppler ultrasound
- Coronary angiography
For one-time payment for services - 20% discount
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What diseases does a vascular surgeon treat?
Basically, modern vascular surgeons specialize in performing minimally invasive surgical interventions (microsurgery). However, they are also involved in the full supervision of the patient - his rehabilitation and recovery, selection of conservative (in particular, preventive) treatment, correction of nutrition and lifestyle, dynamic monitoring of the state of the vascular system.
The angiosurgeon treats the following pathologies:
- Atherosclerosis in all forms and stages;
- Stroke and post-stroke disorders;
- Vascular malformations;
- Aortic aneurysm;
- Varicose veins;
- Myocardial infarction;
- IHD (coronary heart disease);
- Angina;
- Arterial or venous stenoses;
- Thrombosis (acute and chronic);
- Thrombophlebitis;
- Arteriovenous fistulas;
- Raynaud's syndrome;
- Buerger's disease (thromboangiitis obliterans);
- Angiopathy (including diabetic);
- Aortoarteritis;
- Arteritis and polyarteritis;
- Vasculitis;
- Endarteritis;
- Vascular hypertension (hypertension);
- Trophic ulcers;
- Lymphedema (lymphostasis).
Detection of symptomatic manifestations of one or more of these diseases should prompt you to seek professional medical help. Observation and treatment by competent vascular surgeons will significantly improve your quality of life.
Degree of disease development
The disease develops gradually. Main stages:
- Lipid spots.
The easiest stage at which the artery walls begin to become saturated with lipid compounds. Localization is focal, in some areas. The changes look like yellowish spots, stripes spreading along the inner surface of the vessels. There are no symptoms. Plaques form faster in patients with excess weight, bad habits, diabetes, and high blood pressure. - Fibrous plaques.
This is the second stage of the disease, in which the previously formed lipid areas become inflamed. As a result, the immune system releases inflammatory mediators in the affected areas. The fats that have accumulated in the walls are destroyed, die, and sclerosis forms. The connective tissue grows, fibrous plaques form, protrusion occurs on the walls of blood vessels, stenosis develops, and blood flow is disrupted. - Complicated plaque.
This is the last stage in the development of the disease, during which complications appear and symptoms begin to appear. The protrusion hardens, calcifies, significantly narrows the lumen, and blood cannot circulate normally.
When is it necessary to contact an angiosurgeon?
An appeal to vascular surgeons should take place in the presence of subjective complaints and suspicions of relevant pathologies.
Persons over 45-50 years of age should undergo regular scheduled examinations with cardiologists, phlebologists and angiosurgeons to prevent and timely detect possible vascular pathologies. This age category of patients is automatically included in the risk group for various venous and arterial diseases. This is especially true for those who lead an unhealthy lifestyle with bad habits, irrational nutrition and physical inactivity, as well as those who have provoking chronic diseases (diabetes mellitus, thrombophilia, etc.).
Contact your vascular surgeon if you notice the following symptoms:
- Severe swelling of the legs, especially in the evening or at night;
- Night cramps in the lower extremities;
- Feeling of heaviness, fullness, burning and itching in the calf muscles;
- Intermittent claudication;
- Fatigue of the legs with an objectively low load;
- The appearance of spider veins and protruding venous nodes on the legs;
- Regularly recurring headaches of unknown origin;
- Blood pressure disorders (hypo- or hypertension);
- Tendency to hypertensive crises;
- Changes in the shade and structure of the skin of the extremities (as well as ring pigmentation on the legs);
- Burning in the feet when walking long distances;
- Feeling of tingling, numbness and severe cooling of the extremities without objective reasons;
- Pulsation in the abdominal area;
- Spontaneous repeated fainting and syncope (short-term loss of consciousness);
- Transient paresis and paralysis;
- Loss of sensation in the upper or lower extremities;
- Constant dizziness and nausea;
- Visual disturbances (transient blindness, the appearance of floaters and light spots in the field of vision, peripheral vision disorder);
- Short-term disorders of speech functions;
- Unsteadiness of gait, frequent states of numbness;
- Blackening or blueness of fingers;
- Long-term non-healing wounds, fistulas and ulcers.
If such symptoms are present, the therapist can make a pointless diagnosis, so if they are detected, it is advisable to contact a highly specialized specialist. In addition to a vascular surgeon, we recommend that you consult a neurologist and cardiologist.
Vascular surgeons deal with both congenital and acquired diseases of the cardiovascular system.
Diagnostics
At the beginning of development, atherosclerosis does not manifest itself in any way. Later, as the disease progresses, several visible manifestations of atherosclerosis appear, which can be identified during a routine examination by a neurologist. This is weight loss, swelling, fatty tissue, and trophic disorders. The doctor will listen to the heart, measure blood pressure, and prescribe clinical tests. The following diagnostic measures are used:
- Ultrasound Dopplerography. Allows you to identify diseases at an early stage, assess the size of plaques and blood flow.
- Coronary angiography is used to assess the condition of the heart vessels.
Recommendations before visiting a doctor
At the beginning of the appointment, the patient must voice his complaints to the specialist. To provide your doctor with more complete information, it is recommended to keep a diary of pain attacks. It should note the nature of the pain, its location, strength, frequency of occurrence, and duration. It is also necessary to pay attention to the factors that provoke attacks and, conversely, contribute to their cessation.
If the patient suffers from pressure changes, you need to draw up a table of blood pressure readings in the morning and evening for the last 2-3 days.
The neurologist should be shown a list of medications taken (with exact names and dosage).
It is also advisable to write down questions for yourself that will be asked to the doctor after diagnosis (about the cost and duration of the therapeutic course, prognosis of the disease, the need for consultation with related specialists, etc.).
Before the examination, you should take a shower and put on clean and comfortable clothes.
Treatment
Treatment depends on the stage of the process. This may be a conservative approach or surgery. In the first case, the focus is on normalizing the patient's lifestyle. Nutrition is adjusted, a special diet is prescribed, and a weight loss program is developed, if necessary. As drug therapy, drugs are used that normalize blood pressure, lower cholesterol levels, normalize blood counts, and replenish the supply of vitamins and microelements.
If the process has gone far enough and medications do not achieve the desired result, surgery is used. This can be open or modern endovascular intervention. A gentle method is angioplasty, during which the lumen of the vessel expands; if necessary, a stent can be installed to maintain the lumen of the vessel in the desired position. The operation is aimed at removing plaques that are blocking normal blood flow. In some cases, a severely damaged vessel may be replaced or a new blood flow path created.
Get diagnosed with atherosclerosis at Clinic No. 1
- Neurologist appointment
- Doppler ultrasound
- Coronary angiography
For one-time payment for services - 20% discount
Call
What does a specialist do?
A vascular surgeon works in the following areas:
- Diagnosis, treatment and prevention of vascular (arterial and venous) diseases;
- Timely detection of oncopathologies (when a malignant tumor is localized in close proximity to large vessels);
- Treatment of vascular lesions that occur due to severe injuries;
- Prosthetics of vessels damaged due to injury or surgery;
- Performing full and minor surgical interventions on veins and arteries;
- Removal of genetically determined vascular abnormalities (malformations, hemangiomas, etc.);
- Replantology (microsurgical intervention aimed at complete or partial reconstruction of limbs or their fragments after radical amputation);
- Prevention aimed at preventing the development of vascular diseases in patients at risk.
The prognosis of treatment directly depends on the degree of qualification of the specialist, his clinical experience, skills, as well as the timeliness of the patient’s contact with him.
Make an appointment with a neurologist
Clinic No. 1 in Moscow offers a consultation with a neurologist. Among the main advantages of a multidisciplinary medical center are experienced doctors, the latest equipment, comfortable conditions and safety for patients, as well as a convenient location of the clinic and a flexible system of discounts. You can make an appointment through the website or by phone.
Moscow, st. Krasnodarskaya, house. 52, bldg. 2
+7
We work on weekdays and weekends from 8.00 to 21.00
Which doctor interprets MRI of the brain?
A radiologist is responsible for describing the images.
The study takes 15-30 minutes (depending on the need for contrast injection). After the session, a radiologist examines the images and analyzes what he saw. The doctor records all deviations from the norm: an increase or decrease in the size of the objects in question, foci of demyelination (white spots on tomograms, characteristic of multiple sclerosis and many other pathologies), and interprets the images. The result is a description of the study. The diagnosis is made based on the patient’s complaints, symptoms of the disease, laboratory and instrumental data. A competent synthesis of information can only be carried out by the attending physician.
To perform a study of the brain and other organs in the diagnostic ]“Magnit”[/anchor], call the number! Our specialist will give detailed recommendations.
Neck pain - need a neurologist
It should be remembered that neck pain can signal serious problems in the body and requires proper treatment. A medical consultation with a neurologist is mandatory - the doctor will be able to accurately determine the cause of the pain, which is impossible to do on your own.
Most often, discomfort is caused by cervical osteochondrosis, which is characterized by degradation of cartilage tissue in the spine. The occurrence of intervertebral hernia is a complication in which nerve fibers are compressed, which causes increased pain in the neck. A neurologist will help avoid the development of osteochondrosis and accompanying diseases. Quite often, other reasons can cause pain. Let's take a closer look at what can lead to a painful condition in the cervical spine.
