Glossary for Stroke

• A ?-protein amyloidosis: Amyloidosis is a rare group of metabolic disorders where a protein called amyloid accumulates in body organs and tissues where it can cause damage. This particular form involves deposits of ?-proteins in the nerves resulting in Alzheimer's disease or around brain blood vessels which can cause strokes or brain bleeds.
• Abdominal obesity metabolic syndrome: A syndrome characterized by a group of conditions that are considered major risk factors for diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease.
• Alès dysfibrinogenemia: A rare inherited disorder characterized by abnormal fibrinogen which is a protein essential to the blood clotting process. The Alès type was discovered in Alès.
• Amphetamine abuse: Use of the stimulant drugs known as amphetamines or "speed"
• Amyloidosis VII: Amyloidosis involves the abnormal deposit of a substance called amyloid in various parts of the body. In the Ohio type, the amyloid deposits in the leptomeningeal blood vessels, brainstem, spinal cord and eye causing central nervous system dysfunction, brain hemorrhages as well as vision impairment.
• Amyloidosis, oculoleptomeningeal: Amyloidosis involves the abnormal deposit of a substance called amyloid in various parts of the body. In this particular type, the amyloid deposits in the leptomeningeal blood vessels, brainstem, spinal cord and eye causing central nervous system dysfunction, brain hemorrhages and vision impairment.
• Aneurysm: Dangerous ballooning of a weakened area of an artery
• Aneurysm, intracranial berry: A bulge in a blood vessel in the brain. The bulge can rupture causing a stroke. They usually form as a result of high blood pressure and weak blood vessel walls in the brain. There are five different subtypes of intracranial berry aneurysms with each one caused by a defect in different gene. The defective gene increases and individuals risk for developing intracranial berry aneurysms.
• Aneurysm, intracranial berry, 1: A bulge in a blood vessel in the brain. The bulge can rupture causing a stroke. They usually form as a result of high blood pressure and weak blood vessel walls in the brain. There are five different subtypes of intracranial berry aneurysms with each one caused by a defect in different gene. The defective gene increases and individuals risk for developing intracranial berry aneurysms. Type 1 is caused by a defect on chromosome 7q11.2.
• Aneurysm, intracranial berry, 2: A bulge in a blood vessel in the brain. The bulge can rupture causing a stroke. They usually form as a result of high blood pressure and weak blood vessel walls in the brain. There are five different subtypes of intracranial berry aneurysms with each one caused by a defect in different gene. The defective gene increases and individuals risk for developing intracranial berry aneurysms. Type 2 is caused by a defect on chromosome 19q13.
• Aneurysm, intracranial berry, 3: A bulge in a blood vessel in the brain. The bulge can rupture causing a stroke. They usually form as a result of high blood pressure and weak blood vessel walls in the brain. There are five different subtypes of intracranial berry aneurysms with each one caused by a defect in different gene. The defective gene increases and individuals risk for developing intracranial berry aneurysms. Type 3 is caused by a defect on chromosome 1p36.13-p34.3.
• Aneurysm, intracranial berry, 4: A bulge in a blood vessel in the brain. The bulge can rupture causing a stroke. They usually form as a result of high blood pressure and weak blood vessel walls in the brain. There are five different subtypes of intracranial berry aneurysms with each one caused by a defect in different gene. The defective gene increases and individuals risk for developing intracranial berry aneurysms. Type 4 is caused by a defect on chromosome 5p15.2-14.3.
• Aneurysm, intracranial berry, 5: A bulge in a blood vessel in the brain. The bulge can rupture causing a stroke. They usually form as a result of high blood pressure and weak blood vessel walls in the brain. There are five different subtypes of intracranial berry aneurysms with each one caused by a defect in different gene. The defective gene increases and individuals risk for developing intracranial berry aneurysms. Type 5 is caused by a defect on chromosome 2p13.
• Aneurysm, intracranial berry, 6: A bulge in a blood vessel in the brain. The bulge can rupture causing a stroke. They usually form as a result of high blood pressure and weak blood vessel walls in the brain. There are now six different subtypes of intracranial berry aneurysms with each one caused by a defect in different gene. The defective gene increases an individuals risk for developing intracranial berry aneurysms. Type 6 is caused by a defect on chromosome 9p21.
• Aneurysm, intracranial berry, 7: A bulge in a blood vessel in the brain. The bulge can rupture causing a stroke. They usually form as a result of high blood pressure and weak blood vessel walls in the brain. There are five different subtypes of intracranial berry aneurysms with each one caused by a defect in different gene. The defective gene increases and individuals risk for developing intracranial berry aneurysms. Type 7 is caused by a defect on chromosome 11q24-q25.
• Aneurysm, intracranial berry, 8: A bulge in a blood vessel in the brain. The bulge can rupture causing a stroke. They usually form as a result of high blood pressure and weak blood vessel walls in the brain. There are five different subtypes of intracranial berry aneurysms with each one caused by a defect in different gene. The defective gene increases and individuals risk for developing intracranial berry aneurysms. Type 8 is caused by a defect on chromosome 14q23.
• Angioma hereditary neurocutaneous: A rare genetic condition characterized angiomas involving both the skin and nervous system.
• Antiphospholipid syndrome: An autoimmune disorder characterized by blood clots and pregnancy losses.
• Aorta conditions: Conditions that affect the aorta
• Aphasia: Language difficulty usually from brain damage or stroke.
• Arteriosclerosis Obliterans: Arteriosclerosis that results in the narrowing and gradual blockage of the artery. Arteriosclerosis involves the deposition of cholesterol plaques and other material on the inside of the artery walls. The symptoms will depend on the location of the arteries affected and how severe the blockage is.
• Atherosclerosis: Hardening of the arteries.
• Atrial Fibrillation: Common heart arrythmia with rapid beating in upper chambers
• Autonomic Dysreflexia: A complication of spinal cord injury where a particular stimulus can trigger an excessive response from the autonomic nervous system which causes blood pressure to rise - sometimes to dangerous levels. Stimuli that can trigger the response include bladder irritation, bowel irritation (e.g. due to constipation, gas, enema), skin irritation (e.g. due to burns, pressure sores, ingrown toenails), broken bones, tight clothing, labour and temperature extremes. The severity and frequency of the condition is highly variable. The condition occurs in patients with tetraplegia or with loss of sensation above the lower rib cage.
• Bacterial endocarditis: Infection and inflammation of the inner layers of the heart, most commonly the valves cause by bacteria.
• Behavioral symptoms: Symptoms of personal behavior.
• Behcet's Disease: Recurring inflammation of small blood vessels affecting various areas.
• Bing-Neel syndrome: A rare disorder involving infiltration of the central nervous system by abnormal leukemia-like cells (lymphoplasmocytoid cells) that occur in Waldenström's macroglobulinemia. The abnormality increases blood viscosity which impairs its circulation through small brain and eye blood vessels.
• Binswanger's Disease: A type of senile dementia characterized by chronic cerebrovascular disease.
• Blood pressure symptoms: High (hypertension) or low blood pressure (hypotension).
• Body skin hyperlaxity due to vitamin K-dependent coagulation factor deficiency: A rare inherited connective tissue disorder caused by a deficiency of a blood coagulation factor.
• Botulism food poisoning: Extremely dangerous food poisoning requiring medical attention, but not always recognized because of its non-abdominal symptoms.
• Brain conditions: Medical conditions that affect the brain
• Breathing difficulties: Various types of breathing difficulty (dyspnea).
• Breathing symptoms: Symptoms affecting the breathing systems.
• Carbon monoxide poisoning: Poisoning from breathing air with too much carbon monoxide, usually from combustion.
• Cardiac arrest: Stoppage of the heart, usually caused by heart attack
• Cardiovascular Disease: Diseases of the heart or blood vessels including cerebrovascular diseases such as stroke.
• Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy, Familial: A rare disorder where abnormal deposits of amyloid in the brain blood vessels causes spasticity, incoordination and dementia. Brain hemorrhage and strokes may also result in severe cases.
• Cerebral Aneurysm: Dangerous swelling of a brain blood vessel that may rupture.
• Cerebral Arteriosclerosis: Hardening or blockage of arteries in the brain.
• Cerebral hemorrhage: Bleeding in the brain
• Cerebral ventricle neoplasm: A tumor that occurs in the fluid-filled spaces of the brain called the ventricles. Symptoms vary depending on the size and exact location of the tumor and whether it is cancerous or not.
• Cerebrovascular Conditions: Conditions of the brain's blood vessels including stroke.
• Cerebrovascular accident: Occurs when the blood supply to the brain is interrupted and results in cell injury and death.
• Cocaine abuse: Stimulant drug with various effects
• Cognitive impairment: General loss of mental or cognitive ability
• Coma: Prolonged unconsciousness
• Confusion: Mental confusion and impaired thinking.
• Congenital aneurysms of the great vessels: A bulge in one of the main blood vessels in the body - pulmonary artery, pulmonary veins, vena cava and aorta. The condition is generally asymptomatic unless the aneurysm becomes very large or bursts which can result in rapid death depending on the location of the aneurysm.
• Convulsions: Involuntary spasms especially those affecting the full body
• Coordination problems: Symptoms affecting physical coordination.
• Death: The cessation of life
• Decompression sickness: Condition from overly rapid decompression, especially when diving.
• Depression: Persistent depressed mood with various depressive symptoms.
• Diabetes: Failing or reduced ability of the body to handle sugars.
• Diabetic hypoglycemia: Low blood sugar attack from insulin or diabetes medications
• Diethylstilbestrol: A synthetic nonsteroidal estrogen
• Dizziness: Feelings of lightheadedness or giddiness.
• Dysarthria: Imperfect articulation of speech
• Dysbarism: A condition that occurs when there is a change in the surrounding pressure such as when scuba diving or moving to places of different altitudes. Dysbarism can occur when pressure increases or decreases and includes conditions such as decompression sickness, barotraumas, nitrogen narcosis, high pressure nervous system and atrial gas embolism.
• Eclampsia: Fits (seizures) from severe high blood pressure in pregnant women.
• Ecstasy abuse: Use of the illicit drug called ecstasy
• Embolism: Blockage of an artery or blood vessel
• Emotional symptoms: Symptoms affecting the emotions.
• Encephalitis: Dangerous infection of the brain
• Endocarditis: Inflammation of the inner lining of the heart
• Endocarditis, infective: A rare condition where a bacterial infection attacks the inner lining of the heart muscle and valves which is called the endocardium.
• Endomyocardial fibrosis: Heart disease characterized by progressive fibrosis of the lining of one or both lower heart cavities. This results in constriction of the heart cavity and may involve the heart valves and other structures.
• Epilepsy: Brain condition causing seizures or spasms.
• Essential thrombocytosis - same as essential thrombocythemia: A rare blood disorder where the blood contains too many platelets due to excessive megakaryocytes (platelet-producing cells). Platelets are essential for blood clotting but in essential thrombocythemia excessive platelets can cause the blood to form abnormal clots. If the platelets are defective as well then bleeding problems can occur. The severity of the condition is variable.
• Eye movement symptoms: Symptoms affecting the movement of the eye
• Fabry's Disease: Genetic fat storage disorder
• Fainting: Temporary loss of conciousness or fainting.
• Falls: When a person losses balance and falls over
• Familial atrial fibrillation: A rare inherited condition where abnormal electrical activity in the heart causes it to have a fast and irregular beat. The condition may go unnoticed or may cause stroke or sudden death in some cases.
• Fever: Elevation of the body temperature above the normal 37 degrees celsius
• Fibromuscular dysplasia of arteries: A rare disease where the blood vessel walls thicken and harden which reduces blood flow through the arteries and into various organs. The main arteries that may be affected are those in the kidney's and abdomen as well as the carotid artery which caries blood from the heart to the neck.
• Forgetfulness: Forgetting things or loss of memory ability
• Frozen Shoulder: Stiffness of the shoulder
• Gliosis: proliferation of astrocytes in the central nervous system in response to injury - resulting in scar formation.
• Granulomatous Angiitis of the Central Nervous System: Inflammation of blood vessels in the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord). The condition tends to recur.
• HERNS syndrome: A rare inherited syndrome characterized by blood vessel disease which causes eye and kidney disease and strokes. Neurological manifestations tend to occur around the 2nd and 3rd decade of life due to the blood vessels in the brain being affected.
• HIV/AIDS: HIV is a sexually transmitted virus and AIDS is the progressive immune failure that HIV causes.
• Headache: Pain that is located in the head
• Hearing symptoms: Problems with the ear's hearing ability
• Heart conditions: Any condition that affects the heart
• Hemiparesis: One-sided paralysis of the body
• Hemiplegia: Paralysis of one side of the body.
• Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia: A blood disorder triggered by the use of the drug called heparin which is an anticoagulant. The severity of the condition is variable.
• Hiccups: Noise and diaphragm muscle contractions (properly called "hiccoughs")
• Hypertension: High blood pressure
• Hyperventilation: Excessively rapid breathing causing blood gas imbalances
• Hypoglycemia: Low blood sugar level
• Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis: Lung fibrosis from unknown causes.
• Impotence: Inability to attain or sustain an erection.
• Intracranial arteriovenous malformation: A congenital malformation where there is an opening that connects an artery with a vein inside the brain. Severity of symptoms is determined by the extent of the malformation.
• Ischemia: Inadequate blood supply to tissues, usually caused by a problem in the blood vessel.
• Language problems: Symptoms affecting language processing.
• Limb symptoms: Symptoms affecting the limbs
• Lipoproteinemia: A disorder in which the proteins that carry fat around the body are defective.
• Loss of balance: The loss of ones ability to balance
• Loss of coordination: The loss of ones ability to coordinate their movements
• Loss of vision: The loss of ones ability to see
• Lupus: Autoimmune disease with numerous effects on various organs and linings.
• Malignant hypertension: A condition which is characterized by a severe hypertensive state with papilledema and vascular hemorrhagic lesions
• Menopause: The end of female menstruation and fertility.
• Migraine: Chronic recurring headaches with or without a preceding aura.
• Mitochondrial diseases: Any of a group of mitochondrial disorders affecting cell metabolism and especially muscles.
• Mitral-valve prolapse: A common heart condition that is often harmless.
• Mountain sickness: Illness from poor adjustment to low oxygen at altitude.
• Movement symptoms: Changes to movement or motor abilities
• Moyamoya Disease: Brain blood vessel disorder.
• Multi-Infarct Dementia: Dementia due to brain blood clots and strokes.
• Muscle weakness: A condition which is characterized by an inability of the muscles to function at their full strenght
• Nausea: The queasy feeling of nausea and often also vomiting.
• Neurogenic bladder: Problems with the nerves controlling the bladder and urination.
• Neurosyphilis: A complication of untreated syphilis where the infection invades the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and causes a range of neurological symptoms. The condition can be life-threatening but some cases are asymptomatic. There are four forms of the condition: asymptomatic, meningovascular, tabes dorsalis and general paresis.
• Neurosyphilis - general paresis: A complication of untreated syphilis where the infection invades the brain cells and causes a range of neurological symptoms. The condition is progressive and life-threatening.
• Neurosyphilis - meningovascular: A complication of untreated syphilis where the infection invades the central nervous system and causes cranial nerve palsies and pupil abnormalities.
• Numbness: Loss of feeling or sensation
• Nystagmus: Involuntary jerky eye movements
• Pain: A feeling of suffering, agony, distress caused by the stimulation of pain fibres in the nervous system
• Paralysis: The loss of motor function due to dysfunction of the spinal cord
• Paralysis symptoms: Loss of body control and/or feeling.
• Polycythemia vera: A condition which is characterized by myeloproliferation of unknown etiology
• Preeclampsia: High blood pressure problems in second half of pregnancy.
• Primary angiitis of the central nervous system: Inflammation of blood vessels that affect the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord). There are three main types within this category: benign angiitis of the central nervous system (BACNS), granulomatous angiitis of the central nervous system (GACNS) and atypical primary angiitis of the central nervous system (atypical ACNS). Symptoms vary depending on which particular type is involved and which part of the central nervous system is involved.
• Progeria: A rare fatal genetic disorder characterized by extremely premature aging.
• Pulmonary arteriovenous malformation: A rare malformation where there is an abnormal opening between a lung artery and a lung vein which causes some blood to pass through the lungs without being oxygenated.
• Reflex symptoms: Changes to the nerve reflexes
• Rheumatoid vasculitis: A rare disorder where sufferers of rheumatoid arthritis with joint inflammation develop inflammation of small and medium sized blood vessels. It tends to mostly affect the blood vessels in the skin. The symptoms are determined by which part of the body is affected.
• Sickle Cell Anemia: An inherited disorder that affects hemoglobin S which is a blood component that allows red blood cells to carry oxygen. Red blood cells become sickle shaped rather than the normal doughnut shape. Severity of symptoms are variable.
• Sleep apnea: Temporary stopping breathing for a brief time while sleeping, often repeating.
• Sneddon Syndrome: A rare progressive inherited disorder involving the blood vessel disease and neurological symptoms.
• Speech symptoms: Problems with speech or voice.
• Spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia - nephrotic syndrome: A very rare syndrome characterized by skeletal and immunity abnormalities. The immune defect leads to progressive kidney dysfunction which can ultimately cause death during the first decade.
• Stokes Adams syndrome: Heart condition causing fainting or blackouts
• Stroke symptoms: Brain-related symptoms of bleeding or blockage.
• Sturge-Weber Syndrome: A rare genetic disorder characterized by excessive blood vessel growth, calcium accumulation inside the brain and seizures.
• Subarachnoid haemorrhage: A condition which is characterized by haemorrhage of blood into the subarachnoid space
• Subarachnoid hemorrhage: Brain bleeding in the subarachnoid area
• Swallowing difficulty: Difficulty or pain when swallowing
• Syncope: Temporary loss of conciousness or fainting.
• Thrombocythemia: A haematological disorder in which there is excessive proliferation of platelet precursor cells, resulting in increased numbers of platelets in the blood.
• Thromboembolism: Lodgement of a blood clot causing blockage
• Thrombosis: Blood clot occurring in a blood vessel
• Todd's Paralysis: Recurrent episodes of seizure and paralysis.
• Transient Ischemic Attack: A temporary serious mini-stroke lasting only a few minutes.
• Tremor: Involuntary trembling most commonly of the hands.
• Type 1 diabetes: Severe insulin-treated diabetes typically occurring in young people.
• Type 2 diabetes: Most common diabetes in adults, usually progressing slowly, mostly treated without insulin at diagnosis.
• Unconsciousness: Loss of consciousness that may result from a wide variety of causes. An unconscious person is usually completely unresponsive to their environment or people around them. Unconsciousness can occur as a result of brain injury, lack of oxygen or poisoning as well as numerous other conditions.
• Vascular malformations of the brain: Conditions affecting the brain blood vessels. The type and severity of symptoms is determined by the type, location and extent of the malformation. There are six types of vascular malformations of the brain: telangiectasis, venous malformations, cavernous malformations, arteriovenous malformations, vein of Galen malformation and mixed malformations.
• Vasculitis: Inflammation of a blood or lymph vessel
• Vertebral Artery Dissection: A tear that develops in the verebral artery and tends to result in a stroke. It is the most common cause of stroke in young people. Vertebral artery dissections can be caused by trauma to the neck, manipulation of the spine (chiropractics), high blood pressure or even blowing the nose in some cases.
• Vision changes: Any change in vision or sight.
• Vision loss: Impaired vision or loss of vision
• Vomiting: Vomiting or retching symptoms.
• Walking symptoms: Problems with walking.
• Weakness: Symptoms causing weakness of the body
• Wegener's granulomatosis: A rare disease involving blood vessel inflammation which can affect the blood flow to various tissues and organs and hence cause damage. The respiratory system and the kidneys are the main systems affected.