What Are the Signs of An Impending Stroke?
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Although symptoms only last temporarily, anyone who experiences some symptoms mentioned above should be immediately referred to hospital for accurate diagnosis.
Doctors usually will perform some tests to diagnose the underlying cause, these may include:
- Physical exams to analyze your blood vessels and heart, including your heart rate, blood sugar, blood cholesterol, and blood pressure (in fact, high blood pressure is the major risk factor of transient ischemic attack and stroke).
- CT scan or MRI test are often needed to check the overall health of your blood vessels that carry blood from the heart to the brain. These tests can provide a detailed picture of your head. A change that trigged by TIAs usually doesn’t appear in these tests, but does for a true stroke.
Other tests include; angiogram to find blockage /bleeding blood vessels, echocardiogram to find a blood clot near your heart, carotid duplex to find narrowed arteries in the neck, and EKG test to analyze whether you have irregular heartbeats.
According to the American Stroke Association, about more than 10 percent of those who experience transient ischemic attack will experience a true stroke within three months.
If you got transient ischemic attack, you can reduce this risk by following the recommendations suggested by your doctor. He can make a comprehensive plan to help manage your risk factors.
My husband had a left-sided stroke (from a piece of cholesterol) at age 46. I’ve worked in hospitals and doctors’ offices my entire career of 34 years, 6 of them in a neurological office, and didn’t recognize the slight droop of his right side of his mouth. He could walk,talk, eat without swallowing problems, drink without drooling, and all the other signs of a strike, which he did not have. I though he may have had Bell’s palsy, as he kept saying he was fine, just very tired. But he has odd reactions to medication and apparently odd symptoms of medical problems too. I told my stepson if he was no better by morning, I was taking him to the hospital. By morning, all he could say was “um”. That’s when I knew he was in trouble. By the time the ambulance got him to the hospital, he could not speak, understand, read or write but was still conscious. Brought him immediately to the closest teaching hospital/medical center. He was in the ICU for 4 days, then rehab center for 4 days afterwards then he refused to stay any longer and went to outpatient therapy for2 months. After that, his copay went up and we could no longer afford therapy. He still has problems with feeling on his right side, word-finding difficult, and memory surrounding the weeks preceding and post stroke. That was 12 years ago September 23, 2009.