cerebrovascular refers to the blood vessels taking blood to the brain.
A blockage that restricts blood to the brain is called a stroke.
Strokes can occur when blood vessels in the brain block, or when a clot formed in another part of the body is carried to the brain.
mean (average) – where all the results are added together, and then divided by the number of results to find the (mean) average. See median.
preclinical refers to the early development stage for a new drug, before any testing on humans. This includes they laboratory and animal tests. Preclinical studies will not always show what will happen when people use the drugs, but can provide a guide to serious problems that could occur.
CSF – cerebral spinal fluid – the fluid that circulates around the brain and spinal column.
specificity – when referring to the accuracy of a test result, specificity refers to the proportion of people who do not have an illness or disease who have a negative test result.
If a test has low specificity, the concern is over false-positive results – where people who to not have a condition are wrongly diagnosed as having it.
If a test has high specificity, then people who to not have a condition are correctly ruled out from the condition.
For a serious condition, high specificity is essential to prevent people being unnecessarily treated.
See sensitivity.