Encephalopathy overview
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Encephalopathy |
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Encephalopathy overview On the Web |
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American Roentgen Ray Society Images of Encephalopathy overview |
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Risk calculators and risk factors for Encephalopathy overview |
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Aditya Govindavarjhulla, M.B.B.S. [2]
Overview
Encephalopathy literally means disease of the brain. It is a brain malfunction in the face of systemic metabolic derangements due to cardiopulmonary, mitochondrial, renal, hepatic or endocrine disease. In medical jargon it can refer to a wide variety of degenerative brain disorders with very different etiologies, prognoses and implications. For example, prion diseases, all of which causetransmissible spongiform encephalopathies, are nearly always fatal and have an infectious origin, but other encephalopathies are reversible and can be caused by deficiency, toxins, and several other causes.