Corticosteroids, Intracranial Pressure and the Pathogenesis of Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension.

特发性颅内高压(IIH)是超重女性常见的致盲疾病。受影响的患者患有严重的头痛和严重的视力丧失，这是由于脑压增加造成的，称为颅内压。IIH患者脑压升高的原因尚不清楚，但可能与脑液(称为脑脊液)的产生和排出之间的平衡异常有关。由于超过90%的IIH患者是女性和肥胖，我们预计脑脊液平衡失调可能与激素和肥胖有关，我们的研究将进一步探讨这一点。首先，我们将确定这些荷尔蒙在大脑中产生和排出脑脊液的区域在哪里以及如何作用。然后，我们将研究IIH患者的尿液、血清和脑脊液，以确定哪些激素和化学物质是这种疾病独有的。最后，减肥曾被建议作为IIH的一种治疗方法，但到目前为止，这一点还没有得到证实。将进行一项临床研究，以确定减肥在治疗IIH方面是否真的有效，如果是，是否通过改变疾病特异性激素水平来发挥作用。

Idiopathic intracranial hypertension, (IIH), is a common blinding condition in overweight women. Affected patients suffer with severe headaches and significant visual loss resulting from increased brain pressure, called intracranial pressure. The cause of raised brain pressure in IIH is not known, but it is likely to relate to abnormalities in the balance between production and drainage of brain fluid, known as cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). As greater than 90% of IIH patients are female and obese we expect that the disordered CSF balance may relate to hormones and obesity, our study will investigate this further. Initially, we will identify where and how these hormones act in the areas of the brain that are known to produce and drain CSF. We will then study the urine, serum and CSF of patients with IIH to determine which hormones and chemicals are unique to the disease. Finally, weight loss has previously been suggested as a treatment for IIH, but to date this has not been proven. A clinical study will be carried out to identify whether weight loss is truly effective in treating IIH, and if so whether this works by altering disease specific hormone levels.