Stroke, we have all heard of the term. However, it can mean both ischemic stroke and hemorrhagic stroke. Ischemic stroke is about 4 times more common than hemorrhagic stroke. Although they are life-threatening conditions, they are treatable if you know the warning signs!
Warning Signs of Ischemic Stroke
It is fast-occurring or sudden neurological symptoms, especially if a blood clot has created an obstruction in the cerebral arteries (embolic stroke) or if there is hemorrhaging in the brain (intracranial hemorrhage). However, in cases where the blood vessels gradually become obstructed, the symptoms will start gradually and remain stable for awhile before worsening in a stepwise manner, taking hours or days. The observable warning signs are as follows:
- Numbness in the arms or legs, weakness and loss of balance.
- Contortions of the face or lips.
- Slurred speech, incoherent speech, or loss of ability to understand language.
- Constant dizziness without association with changes in posture.
- Double vision, temporary blindness or loss of vision in one eye.
Causes of Ischemic Stroke
- Atherothrombosis, leading to widespread brain tissue death and possibly swelling in the brain creating pressure on adjacent brain tissues.
- Blood clots from the heart creating an obstruction in the brain (cardioembolism), which is commonly found alongside atrial fibrillation, or small clots can fall off of another artery that has become worn over time (artery to artery embolism).
- Lacunar infarction. Although brain tissue death is not extensive, the patient may experience significant weakness. If symptoms do not persist for more than 24 hours, the condition can be called transient ischemic attack or TIA or a mini-stroke. In most cases, the symptoms do not last for more than half an hour.
Do you know that transient ischemic attack can lead to an actual ischemic stroke?
After transient ischemic stroke (TIA) has occurred, the patient has risk of experiencing an actual stroke later by up to 1 out of 10 people within the first week and up to 2 out of 10 people within the first month. Thereafter, the risk decreases to about 4-5 out of 100 people per year. Hence, doctors recommend that patients who suspect TIA to consult a doctor as soon as possible in order to receive treatment before an actual ischemic stroke and permanent brain death occurs.
Controlling risk factors can reduce risk of stroke.
For people with hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, ischemic heart disease and cardiac arrhythmia, they are at greater risk of this disease, as well as smokers and people who do not exercise. These are factors that can be controlled and changed through behavior modification and attention to self-care.
At the same time, there are certain risk factors that cannot be controlled, for example, older age, being male, ethnicity and family history of ischemic stroke. People with all of these factors are more at risk of having the disease.
Stroke is an acute condition that can cause patient death. Therefore, if you feel that you have any of the above abnormal symptoms, do not hesitate to quickly consult a doctor, because in the treatment of stroke, the sooner you know about it and the sooner you treat it, the more likely you are to survive.
