Stroke is an emergency medical condition that occurs when the blood flow to the brain is cut off. Without blood intake, brain cells will die. This can cause a series of fatal complications, from permanent paralysis to death. There are more than one type of stroke. The most common are ischemic stroke and hemorrhagic stroke.
What is an ischemic stroke?
Ischemic stroke is a type of stroke that occurs when a blood vessel that supplies blood to the area of the brain is blocked by a blood clot. Ischemic stroke is responsible for 87 percent of total stroke cases.
Blood clots are often caused by atherosclerosis, which is a buildup of fat deposits in the lining of the blood vessels. Some of these fat deposits can escape and block the flow of blood in your brain. The concept is similar to a heart attack, where blood clots block blood flow to some of your heart.
Ischemic stroke can be embolic, which means blood clots come from other parts of your body and then move towards the brain - usually from the heart and large arteries in the upper chest and neck.
An estimated 15 percent of cases of embolic stroke are caused by a condition called atrial fibrillation, a condition that makes your heart beat irregularly. This creates a condition in which clots can form in the heart, detach, and travel to the brain.
A blood clot that causes an ischemic stroke will not disappear without treatment.
Signs and symptoms of ischemic stroke
Different types of strokes can cause the same symptoms because each affects the blood flow in your brain. The only way to determine the type of stroke you might face is to get medical help. The doctor will run a CT-Scan imaging test to read your brain.
The National Stroke Association recommends the FAST method to help you identify stroke warning signs:
- F (Face / Face): When you smile, does one side of your face drop down (smile sticking)? Is there numbness around the mouth?
- A (Arms / Arm): When you lift both arms, is one of the arms drooping limply down?
- S (Speech / Talk): Is your speech unclear - pelo / hoarse / slurred / nasal sound? Are there changes in your volume? Are you hard to talk?
- T (Time / Time): If you experience these symptoms, immediately call 119 or go to the nearest ER. This is needed so that you can receive treatment at the hospital stroke unit within 3 hours of arrival.
Additional symptoms that do not match the FAST description include:
- Sudden confusion, such as difficulty understanding what someone is saying
- Difficulty walking, sudden dizziness, or loss of balance
- Sudden and severe headaches with no known cause; nausea and vomiting
- Difficulty seeing in one or both eyes - blurred vision, double vision or loss of vision
- Decreased awareness / loss of consciousness
- Pain when moving the eyes
- Weakness that may affect one limb, half part of the body, or four limbs (arms and legs)
- The symptoms above are a group of common symptoms of stroke, so they are not specific enough to distinguish between ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes. However, a number of common symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, and headache, as well as altered levels of consciousness, can indicate an increase in intracranial pressure (normal brain pressure) and are more common in hemorrhagic strokes and severe ischemic strokes.
Seizures are more common in hemorrhagic strokes compared to ischemic. Seizures occur in 28% of cases of hemorrhagic stroke, generally at the beginning of intracerebral bleeding or in the first 24 hours.
The severity of stroke is generally more severe in hemorrhagic cases. In the first 3 months after a stroke, hemorrhagic strokes are associated with a substantial increase in mortality, which is specifically related to the nature of damage that is prone to severe bleeding.