WordNet

a decrease in size of an organ caused by disease or disuse (同)wasting, wasting away
undergo atrophy; "Muscles that are not used will atrophy"
any weakening or degeneration (especially through lack of use) (同)withering
of or relating to the cerebrum or brain; "cerebral hemisphere"; "cerebral activity"
involving intelligence rather than emotions or instinct; "a cerebral approach to the problem"; "cerebral drama" (同)intellectual

PrepTutorEJDIC

(栄養不良などによる)萎縮(いしゅく) / (一般的に)衰退,退化 / 萎縮する,衰退する / …'を'萎縮させる,衰退させる
大脳の,脳の / 頭脳的な,知的な

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出典(authority):フリー百科事典『ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』「2016/06/03 15:25:28」(JST)

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Cerebral atrophy is a common feature of many of the diseases that affect the brain.^[1] Atrophy of any tissue means a decrement in the size of the cell, which can be due to progressive loss of cytoplasmic proteins. In brain tissue, atrophy describes a loss of neurons and the connections between them. Atrophy can be generalized, which means that all of the brain has shrunk; or it can be focal, affecting only a limited area of the brain and resulting in a decrease of the functions that area of the brain controls. If the cerebral hemispheres (the two lobes of the brain that form the cerebrum) are affected, conscious thought and voluntary processes may be impaired.

Some degree of cerebral shrinkage occurs naturally with age; after the brain completes growth and attains its maximum mass at around age 25^{[citation needed]}, it gradually loses mass with each decade of life, although the rate of loss is comparatively tiny until the age of 60, when approximately .5 to 1% of brain volume is lost per year. By age 75, the brain is an average of 15% smaller than it was at 25. Some areas of the brain such as short-term memory are affected more than others and men lose more brain mass overall than women.^{[citation needed]}

Cerebral atrophy greatly increases in elderly persons (meaning over the age of 75) and especially causes a diminution of functions such as judgement and social appropriateness (which results in the typical characteristic of elderly people engaging in inappropriate or offensive behaviors in front of others). Brain atrophy does not affect all regions with the same intensity as shown by neuroimaging.^[2]

Possible Causes and Associated Diseases and Disorders

The pattern and rate of progression of cerebral atrophy depends on the disease involved.

Injury

Stroke, loss of brain function due to a sudden interruption of blood supply in the brain
Traumatic brain injury
Corticosteroid Use (There appears to be correlations between degree of dosing with corticosteroids and cerebral atrophy)^[3]

Diseases/Disorders

Pick's Disease showing brain atrophy,

Alzheimer's disease (High resolution MRI scans have shown the progression of cerebral atrophy in Alzheimer's disease) ^[4]
Cerebral palsy, in which lesions (damaged areas) may impair motor coordination
Senile dementia, fronto-temporal dementia, and vascular dementia
Pick’s disease, causes progressive destruction of nerve cells in the brain
Huntington's disease, and other genetic disorders that cause build-up of toxic levels of proteins in neurons
Leukodystrophies, such as Krabbe disease, which destroy the myelin sheath that protects axons
Multiple sclerosis, which causes inflammation, myelin damage, and lesions in cerebral tissue
Epilepsy, in which lesions cause abnormal electrochemical discharges that result in seizures
Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and other eating disorders
Malnutrition, caused by lack or excess of nutrition from foods
Type II Diabetes, where the body does not use insulin properly resulting in high blood sugar
Mitochondrial encephalomyopathies, such as Kearns-Sayre syndrome, which interfere with the basic functions of neurons

Infections

Where an infectious agent or the inflammatory reaction to it destroys neurons and their axons, these include...

Encephalitis, acute inflammation in the brain
Neurosyphilis, an infection in the brain or spinal chord
AIDS, disease of the immune system

Symptoms

Many diseases that cause cerebral atrophy are associated with dementia, seizures, and a group of language disorders called the aphasias. Dementia is characterized by a progressive impairment of memory and intellectual function that is severe enough to interfere with social and work skills. Memory, orientation, abstraction, ability to learn, visual-spatial perception, and higher executive functions such as planning, organizing and sequencing may also be impaired. Seizures can take different forms, appearing as disorientation, strange repetitive movements, loss of consciousness, or convulsions. Aphasias are a group of disorders characterized by disturbances in speaking and understanding language. Receptive aphasia causes impaired comprehension. Expressive aphasia is reflected in odd choices of words, the use of partial phrases, disjointed clauses, and incomplete sentences.

Reducing the Risk and Treatment

Unfortunately, cerebral atrophy is not usually preventable, however there are steps that can be taken to reduce the risks such as controlling your blood pressure, eating a healthy balanced diet including omega-3's and antioxidants, and staying active mentally, physically, and socially.^[5]

While most cerebral atrophy is said to be irreversible there are some recent studies that show this is not always the case. A child who was treated with ACTH originally showed atrophy, but four months after treatment the brain was seemingly normal again.^[6]

References

^ Cerebral Atrophy Information Page: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
^ Brainmarkers.com
^ Steroids and Apparent Cerebral Atrophy on Computed Tomograph... : Journal of Computer Assisted Tomography
^ Imaging cerebral atrophy: normal ageing to Alzheimer's disease : The Lancet
^ Cerebral Atrophy - Causes - Better Medicine
^ Apparent Cerebral Atrophy in Patients on Treatment with Steroids - Gordon - 2008 - Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology - Wiley Online Library

UpToDate Contents

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1. アルツハイマー病の臨床症状および診断 clinical manifestations and diagnosis of alzheimer disease
2. 大脳皮質基底核変性症 corticobasal degeneration
3. 消失性白質疾患（Vanishing white matter disease） vanishing white matter disease
4. 水頭症 hydrocephalus
5. 正常圧水頭症 normal pressure hydrocephalus

English Journal

A pilot study of quantitative MRI measurements of ventricular volume and cortical atrophy for the differential diagnosis of normal pressure hydrocephalus.

Moore DW, Kovanlikaya I, Heier LA, Raj A, Huang C, Chu KW, Relkin NR.SourceDepartment of Neurology and Neuroscience, Weill Cornell Medical College, 428 East 72nd Street, Suite 500, New York, NY 10021, USA.
Neurology research international.Neurol Res Int.2012;2012:718150. Epub 2011 Aug 7.
Current radiologic diagnosis of normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) requires a subjective judgment of whether lateral ventricular enlargement is disproportionate to cerebral atrophy based on visual inspection of brain images. We investigated whether quantitative measurements of lateral ventricular v
PMID 21860791

MRI findings in neuroferritinopathy.

Ohta E, Takiyama Y.SourceDepartment of Neurology, Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Medicine and Engineering, University of Yamanashi, 1110 Shimokato, Chuo, Yamanashi 409-3898, Japan.
Neurology research international.Neurol Res Int.2012;2012:197438. Epub 2011 Jul 21.
Neuroferritinopathy is a neurodegenerative disease which demonstrates brain iron accumulation caused by the mutations in the ferritin light chain gene. On brain MRI in neuroferritinopathy, iron deposits are observed as low-intensity areas on T2WI and as signal loss on T2(?)WI. On T2WI, hyperintens
PMID 21808735

Japanese Journal

クロイツフェルト・ヤコブ病の神経耳科学的所見

大和田聡子,山本昌彦,鈴木光也,吉田友英,野村俊之,池宮城慶寛,重田芙由子,田村裕也,岸雅彦
耳鼻咽喉科臨床 104(6), 401-408, 2011
… Diffusion-weight imaging (DWI) Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed a high intensity change in the right side of the cerebral cortex and basal ganglia but no remarkable change in the cerebellum except for slight atrophy. …
NAID 130000804888

Intracranial Germinoma Presenting With Hemiatrophy— Follow-up Results and Literature Review : —Two Case Reports—

SADAMURA Yuko,SUGIYAMA Kazuhiko,UCHIDA Hiroyuki,HANAYA Ryosuke,EGUCHI Kuniki,KURISU Kaoru,ARITA Kazunori,HIRANO Hirofumi
Neurologia medico-chirurgica 51(2), 148-152, 2011
… Two boys aged 8 and 12 years presented with intracranial germinoma manifesting as cerebral hemispheric atrophy, hemiparesis, and decline in academic performance. … Review of 18 previous and our 2 patients presenting with hemispheric atrophy revealed strong male predominance (18:2), mean age of 12.8 ± 5.2 (standard deviation) years, hemiparesis in all patients, and cognitive decline in 9 patients. …
NAID 130000442550