I have chronic microvascular disease of the brain , I want to know how serious this is. I am 48 and uninsured so I cannot afford the mra the echo cardiogram or all the blood tests that the neurologist wants to do. I just want to know if it can kill me. The mri also has shown that I already had a mini stroke at some time in my life. What can I do to change this or is it possible to chang it.??
Microvascular disease of brain is usually seen due to hypertension, diabetes, and smoking; and in some instances due to high blood lipid levels, genetic conditions. It presents as repeated mini-strokes leading to gradual stepwise deterioration in physical and mental abilities....and death. Also, the predisposing conditions for your microvascular disease will affect other organs, including the heart, eyes, kidneys etc., such that unless you control the risk factors, you may land up with multi-organ disease. Plus, it is no guarantee that a person with microvascular disease will not have a large vessel disease (which can be rapidly fatal). Thus, it is important to get a thorough evaluation at that start and then regular clinical checkups and investigations, apart from the medications and lifestyle changes prescribed by your physician.