My father is 80 he had an MRI. He has been having memory problems and is afraid to drive. He is not obese but his blood pressure was not being treated properly and it ran a little high. His MRI said he had Chronic Ischemic white matter disease. What does this mean? It also said something about a TIA. His blood pressure is now under control as is his LDL. He is going to a Nuerologist on Feb 5. What should we expect?
Hello... Chronic ischemic white matter disease mainly related to vascular origin, but I have to consider the age of patient also. In elderly patient degenerative brain parenchymal disease is very common that can leads to memory loss. Vascular ischemia can exaggerate this problem also. Your father is hypertensive also that also cause long term ischemic changes on brain. So in my opinion, the causes for his memory problems are Age and Hypertension, that lead to chronic ischemic changes associated with degenerative white matter changes. In this you can not expect much. Because age is a non-modifiable factor and after controlling of BP, you can not reverse the changes occurred in brain. Thank You