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Overview
What is a stroke?
A stroke happens when there is a loss of blood flow to part of the brain. Your brain cells cannot get the oxygen and nutrients they need from blood, and they start to die within a few minutes. This can cause lasting brain damage, long-term disability or even death.
If you think that you or someone else is having a stroke, call 911 right away. Immediate treatment may save someone’s life and increase the chances for successful rehabilitation and recovery.
Types of strokes
There are several types of strokes:
- Ischemic stroke is caused by a blood clot that blocks or plugs a blood vessel in the brain. This is the most common type; about 80% of strokes are ischemic. Another type of ischemic stroke is caused when the smaller arteries in the brain get blocked gradually by progressive vascular, or atherosclerotic, disease. Advanced arterial disease gets severe enough to keep adequate blood from flowing to the affected portion of the brain.
- Hemorrhagic stroke is caused by a blood vessel that breaks and bleeds into the brain.
Another condition that’s like a stroke is a transient ischemic attack (TIA). It is sometimes called a “mini stroke.” TIAs happen when the blood supply to the brain is blocked for a short time. The damage to the brain cells is not permanent and brain function recovers fully and immediately after blood flow improves. However, if you have had a TIA, you are at a much higher risk of having a stroke.
What are stroke symptoms?
The symptoms of stroke often happen quickly. They include:
- Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg (especially on one side of the body)
- Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding speech
- Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
- Sudden difficulty walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination
- Sudden severe headache with no known cause
If you or someone else shows these symptoms, call 911 immediately. The faster you receive treatment the greater chance you have to limit permanent brain damage and reduce the risk of death.
Are you at risk for a stroke?
Certain factors can raise your risk of a stroke. The major risk factors include:
Age and family history
- Age: Your risk of stroke increases as you get older.
- Race and ethnicity: African Americans have a higher risk of stroke.
- A personal or family history of stroke or TIA.
Medical conditions
- High blood pressure: This is the primary risk factor for a stroke.
- Diabetes
- Heart diseases: Atrial fibrillation and other heart diseases can cause blood clots that lead to stroke.
Lifestyle habits
Some lifestyle habits increase your risk of having a stroke. These include:
- Smoking: When you smoke, you damage your blood vessels and raise your blood pressure.
- Alcohol and illegal drug use
- Not getting enough physical activity
- High cholesterol
- Unhealthy diet
- Obesity
We understand how challenging it can be to break free from the grip of tobacco and nicotine addiction. That’s why we offer free support and resources to help you quit smoking and using other tobacco products. Learn more about our free tobacco cessation program, including our free nicotine replacement therapy.
How doctors diagnose a stroke
To make a diagnosis, your healthcare provider will:
- Ask about your symptoms and medical history
- Do a physical exam, including a check of
- Your mental alertness
- Your coordination and balance
- Any numbness or weakness in your face, arms and legs
- Any trouble speaking and seeing clearly
- Run some tests, which may include:
- Diagnostic imaging of the brain, such as a CT scan or MRI
- Heart tests, which can help detect heart problems or blood clots that may have led to a stroke. Possible tests include an electrocardiogram (EKG), echocardiography and Holter monitoring.
Stroke treatment and rehabilitation
Treatments for stroke include medicines, surgery, and rehabilitation. Which treatments you get depends on the type of stroke and the stage of treatment. The different stages are:
- Acute treatment to try to stop a stroke while it is happening
- Post-stroke rehabilitation to overcome the disabilities and complications caused by the stroke
- Prevention to prevent a first stroke or, if you have already had one, prevent another stroke
Treatment for ischemic stroke
Acute treatments for ischemic stroke are usually medications:
- You may get tPA, (tissue plasminogen activator), a medicine to dissolve the blood clot. You can only get this medicine within 4 hours of when your symptoms started. The sooner you can get it, the better your chance of recovery.
- If you cannot get that medicine, you may get medicine that helps stop platelets from clumping together to form blood clots. Or you may get a blood thinner to keep existing clots from getting bigger.
- If you have a blocked carotid artery or other larger blood vessel in your brain circulation, you may also need a procedure to open your blocked artery using balloons and stents. These procedures are done only in highly specialized centers.
Treatments for hemorrhagic stroke
Acute treatments for hemorrhagic stroke focus on stopping the bleeding. The first step is to find the cause of bleeding in the brain. The next step is to control it:
- If high blood pressure is the cause of bleeding, you may be given blood pressure medicines.
- If an aneurysm if the cause, you may need aneurysm clipping or coil embolization. These are procedures or surgeries to prevent further leaking of blood from the aneurysm. It also can help prevent the aneurysm from bursting again.
- An AVM is a tangle of faulty arteries and veins that can rupture within the brain. If an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) is the cause of a stroke, you may need an AVM repair. An AVM repair may be done through
- Surgery
- Injecting a substance into the blood vessels of the AVM to block blood flow
- Radiation to shrink the blood vessels of the AVM
Post-stroke rehabilitation
Before you leave the hospital, the Ballad Health care team will help you and your family decide the best place for you to continue recovering. You might go home and take advantage of home health care. Or your doctor may recommend a skilled nursing or long-term care facility.
Wherever you go, continue to get physical therapy, speech therapy and/or occupational therapy to help you better move, speak and swallow, and do daily tasks like bathing and dressing.
Your care team will work with you to overcome the effects of stroke as much as possible.
The goal is to help you recover from your stroke as quickly and safely as possible, become independent and have the best possible quality of life. Appropriate and aggressive medical therapy and rehabilitation are crucial in the post-stroke setting. Management with supportive care, cautious management of blood pressure and blood thinning medications, adequate hydration and close cardiac monitoring can help limit the damage to your brain, prevent complications of the stroke, prevent another stroke from occurring (having a stroke increases the risk of having another one, in both the short and long term) and help regain any lost skills.
What you can do to prevent a stroke
If you have already had a stroke, or are at risk of having a stroke, you can make some heart-healthy lifestyle changes to try to prevent a future stroke:
- Eating a heart-healthy diet
- Aiming for a healthy weight
- Managing stress
- Getting regular physical activity
- Quitting smoking
- Managing your blood pressure and cholesterol levels
Stroke treatment near you
Cardiology services at Ballad Health
Our extensive network of highly trained cardiologists, surgeons and advanced practice providers are here to support you and help you navigate a heart-related diagnosis.
Learn more about heart and vascular services at Ballad Health.
CVA Heart Institute Learning Center
We understand that receiving a stroke diagnosis can be overwhelming. Our goal is to alleviate your fears and help you to understand your condition.
We have an informational video library, education tools and heart-related FAQs so that you have the resources you need.
Heart care patient stories
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Read our patient stories
Our patients inspire us every day, and we’re honored when they trust us with their care. They tell their stories best, so we’ve gathered a few here to share with you.
Many of these patients received life-saving care for heart conditions when they weren’t experiencing any symptoms. These experiences have changed they way they look at their individual care and helped them see the importance of regular preventive screenings.