What is demyelination of white matter in brain?

Demyelinating changes in the white matter of the brain are an imaging description. The structure of the human brain is mainly composed of brain cells, or neurons, and nerve fibers emitted by brain cells. White matter is the place where nerve fibers gather, and myelin sheath is the structure that wraps around the nerve fibers. It is like a wire covered with a layer of wire skin. The nerve fibers are also covered with a layer of myelin sheath. Loss of myelin sheath is called demyelinating changes in the white matter of the brain. This condition is more common in older people and is an age-related manifestation of aging. If demyelination is mild, it is often asymptomatic. Many patients are accidentally detected by brain CT or MRI for other reasons. If the white matter demyelination changes are obvious, it may affect memory function and show memory decline. Drug treatment can be given to improve brain circulation for this situation, because obvious white matter demyelination changes are related to cerebral arteriosclerosis and chronic ischemia. However, if obvious demyelination changes occur in young people, they belong to immune diseases of the nervous system. The most common disease is multiple sclerosis.