ACGME Definition
Vascular neurology is an area of medicine in which selected neurological disorders involving the central nervous system due to ischemia or hemorrhage are assessed, monitored, treated and prevented using a combination of clinical evaluation, imaging, interventional techniques, and medications. Specialists in vascular neurology are expected to:
- Participate in the interdisciplinary care of patients with vascular disease that incorporates aspects of epidemiology, basic science, clinical neurology, neuroimaging, critical care, endovascular surgical neuroradiology, neurological vascular surgery, neurosurgery, neurosonology, cerebral blood flow and metabolism, neurobehavior, and neurorehabilitation
- Acquire detailed knowledge of the vascular supply of the central nervous system and its alteration by disease
- Manage stroke patients in outpatient and inpatient settings, including critical care units
- Vascular neurology includes the prevention, evaluation and treatment of a wide range of diseases resulting in vascular insults to the nervous system, including:
- Cardiogenic brain embolism
- Large vessel cerebral atherosclerosis
- Aortic arch cerebral and spinal embolism
- Small cerebral artery occlusive disease
- Hemodynamic brain ischemia
- Migraine and other headache disorders
- Hereditary and acquired hypercoagulable states
- Disseminated intravascular coagulation, thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, and other hematological disorders
- Antiphospholipid antibody syndromes
- Substance abuse and drug toxicities
- Hypertensive encephalopathy
- Arterial dissection
- Vasculopathies and vasculitidies, including inflammatory, infectious, and Moyamoya
- Cerebral venous thrombosis
- Genetic and metabolic disorders
- Intracerebral hemorrhage
- Aneurismal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH)
- Subdural hematomas
- Spinal cord infarction
- Complications of vascular disease, including raised intracranial pressure, sepsis, and venous thrombosis
- Vascular malformations
Latest revision: 09/17/2021 Jamie Elliott, MD, PhD