Stroke is a condition caused by a shortage of blood supply to the brain due to narrowing, blockage or rupture of the cerebral arteries. If it happens and the patient is not treated in time, the patient can suffer from paresis, paralysis or even death. Because every second without treatment means increasing death of brain cells, Dr. Puchit Sukphulloprat, Neurologist from the Brain and Neurological Center of Phyathai 2 Hospital, would like to let everyone know how to observe the warning signs of stroke from the symptoms below.
Observable Warning Signs of Stroke
The brain is the control center responsible for regulating practically every part of the body. However, common and observable symptoms are palsy, drooping mouth, drooling, dribbling from the corner of the mouth when eating or drinking, incoherent speech, voice changes, slurred speech and speechlessness, limb weakness and dropping of the hand after raising it. These symptoms are found in up to 70-80% of stroke patients.
Every second is crucial to the patient.
One popular method to treat stroke in Thailand is the administering of rt-PA intravenously. Accordingly, the safe time period for administering rt-PA is 3 to 4 and a half hour after onset of symptoms. Any longer and brain death will be so extensive that it might not be possible to rescue the patient in time, or the side effects of the drug can cause more harm than good.
There are other ways to help the patient in addition to rt-PA.
In cases the patient arrives at the hospital later than 4.5 hours, that is, when rt-PA is not a viable treatment option, there are other treatment options. However, how suitable they are also depends on the condition of the disease at the time. Preliminarily, when the patient arrives at the hospital, doctors will run a CT scan, an MRI or angiography to evaluate the blood vessels and precisely determine the severity of the disease before deciding on the treatment option.
Dr. Puchit explained that, “in some cases, a major artery is blocked and brain damage is not very extensive, so doctors use different techniques to clear the artery such as by inserting a catheter to the site of obstruction and then inject a drug to dissolve it or by inserting a device to extract the obstructive blood clot in order to reopen the channel for blood supply to flow to the brain. However, if a small blood vessel is obstructed, a device cannot be inserted to reopen it, so it might be necessary to allow the associated part of the brain to die and then administer a drug to prevent additional obstruction of other blood vessels. Such a drug might be an anti-platelet or an anti-coagulant. In any case, damage caused by stroke at a small blood vessel is usually less extensive than when the stroke occurs at a major artery.”
The popular method used to unblock blood vessels is to insert a catheter via the groin, provided the patient does not have certain contraindications such as bleeding disorders or risk of infection that prevents a catheter from being inserted. Meanwhile, the precautions for this treatment are practically the identical to when treating the patient with an anti-coagulant.
Stroke can lead to other (dangerous) diseases.
Diseases caused by stroke include both direct and indirect diseases. Direct diseases depend on the blood vessels in the brain that are affected by stroke. If the affected part causes limb weakness or loss of ability to walk, pressure sores might later develop, or breathing and swallowing difficulty, or choking and lung infection.
Another impact that ordinary people often do not know about, overlook, or sometimes do not know to be related to stroke, is dementia. Not many people know that stroke can lead to dementia. In reality, it is a fairly common cause and the second cause of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease.
Behavioral modification can reduce risk of stroke.
There is one unavoidable factor and that is age, since older age is linked to increased degeneration of the blood vessels, leading practically every older person to have risk of stroke. Meanwhile, another factor is genetics. If a family member has history of stroke, for example, a father or mother, the child will have a greater risk of stroke.
In addition to the two primary factors above that are unpreventable, there are other co-factors contributing to risk of stroke that we can avoid such as control of blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar to remain within normal levels, avoiding eating excessively salty, sweet and fatty foods, quitting smoking, not drinking alcohol and regular exercise to maintain good health, in addition to going for annual health check-ups, all of which can help lower risk of stroke.
