Diseases of the arterial system in the brain often give rise to a misleading and confusing chain of clinical symptoms.
Not infrequently these symptoms are almost identical with those of well-known diseases, such as tumors, abscesses, cysts, and hemorrhages. The diagnosis is, therefore, empirical or impossible, particularly if no gross evidences of disease are found in accessible or palpable vessels.
Changes in the vessel wall may be dependent on a defective development of the media, which leads to aneurismal pouches, minute, moderate, or large. Atrophy, inflammation, or degeneration follows wasting disease. Acute arteritis from infective processes or intoxications, extensions of disease, septic or otherwise, from adjacent structures, and from external injuries, have been clearly demonstrated by bacteriologic and histologic investigations. Thromboarteritis, in which the brunt of the attack is sustained by the intima and media, may result in the organization of a thrombus and the partial or complete obliteration of