Encephalopathy

Encephalopathy (Greek ἐγκέφαλος, enképhalos, "brain", and ancient Greek πάθεια, pátheia, "suffering" ) is a collective term for pathological changes in the brain of various origins and characteristics. The term is generally used only for changes that affect the brain as a whole and not just individual sections of the brain. Encephalopathy may be caused by abnormal concentrations of toxic substances, pathogens or circulatory disorders, among others. Examples are probably caused by prions caused " transmissible spongiform encephalopathies " as the " bovine spongiform encephalopathy " (BSE ), caused probably by brain- damaging substances such as ammonia in liver disease " hepatic encephalopathy ", the observed in some HIV patients, " HIV encephalopathy " that caused by lack of vitamin B1 ( thiamine) " Wernicke 's encephalopathy " and Binswanger disease ( " subcortical arteriosclerotic encephalopathy " ) or Lyme encephalopathy in chronic stages of disease. A traumatic encephalopathy is the dementia pugilistica.

Lead poisoning can also be the cause of encephalopathies.

As a test to encephalopathies, the technique of protein Misfolding Cyclic Amplification ( PMCA ) is applied.