Wolfgang Walz and a panel of leading authorities illuminate those cellular and molecular mechanisms brought into play during a stroke that lead to neuronal dysfunction. Such damaging factors as spreading depression waves and postischemic depolarization, cell swelling, calcium overload, and oxygen radicals leading to necrosis and apoptosis are described in detail. Also examined are the body's repair mechanisms involving altered gene expression that lead to trophic factor production and heat shock protein synthesis, as well as to astrogliosis and microgliosis. All factors are presented in relation to their therapeutic value and the possible treatment approaches that evolve from their interactions. Cerebral Ischemia: Molecular and Cellular Pathophysiology offers clinicians, interested practitioners, and experimentalists alike a systematic evaluation of all the major biological systems that contribute to brain dysfunction after a vascular accident.
