What is a Stroke?
About 700,000 Americans suffer a stroke each year. That is one stroke every 45 seconds.
A stroke is a brain attack that occurs when there is interruption in the trip of blood supply resulting in a death of cells and some brain damage. When cells die during the stroke, skills controlled by that area of the brain are lost. They build it to move, feel, speak, remember, can be affected.
How a stroke affects a person depends on what part of the brain is afflicted and how much damage results. Ischemic strokes account for about 83% of cases. They occur when clots form within the arteries that supply blood to the head. The block at your blood results insufficient oxygen getting into that part of the brain. Ischemic strokes can be divided into two subtypes, embolic and thrombotic.
An embolic stroke occurs when a blood clot forms elsewhere in the body in the portion that clot breaks off travel into the blood vessels of the brain. The clot continues to journey until it reaches the vessels too small to let it pass. At this point the clot gets lodged blocking the blood vessel and causing an embolic stroke.
Say the words, Richard Nixon, in an embolic stroke is not what comes to mind. We are more likely to think of Vietnam and Watergate but Nixon did have a deadly embolic stroke which occurs when a clot in his heart traveled to his brain.
The other type of ischemic stroke is thrombotic stroke can also be deadly. In this stroke blood flow is hold to a local blood clot known as a thrombus, which develops in an artery supplying blood to the brain. Ischemic strokes are the most type, but hemorrhagic stroke which make up the 70% of cases are often more dangerous.
A hemorrhagic stroke occurs when a blood vessel ruptures and bleeds into the brain compressing the brain tissue. Hemorrhagic stroke can be intracerebral which is more common or subarachnoid. An intracerebral hemorrhage, bleeding occurs in the vessels in the brain itself. High blood pressure is the main cause of this type of hemorrhagic. If asked to recall Franklin Delano Roosevelt, do not likely to think of intracerebral hemorrhages, but like Nixon, Roosevelt was a stroke sufferer. In fact, the brain hemorrhage led to his death in 1945.
He other kind of bleed is the subarachnoid hemorrhage which occurs when a ballooning of a weakened blood vessel or a true aneurysm bursts. Blood then spills into the projective spinal fluid around the brain causing it to be surrounded by this contaminated fluid. If the blood goes into the brain, or if the blood vessel spasm, it can cause a stroke.
A stroke is a brain attack. No matter what type of stroke a patient has, it is important to seek medical assistance immediately? It is lifetime disability or death can result.
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