Stroke

Introduction: Stroke

Stroke symptoms: There are various causes of stroke-like symptoms including stroke, transient ischemic attacks (mini-strokes) and several other serious conditions. ... more about Stroke symptoms.

Stroke: A stroke occurs when the blood supply to the part of the brain is suddenly interrupted (ischemic) or when a blood vessel in the brain bursts, ... more about Stroke.

Stroke: Serious brain event from bleeding or blood clots. More detailed information about the symptoms, causes, and treatments of Stroke is available below.

Symptoms of Stroke

• Sudden onset of symptoms - some strokes come on quickly
• Gradual onset of symptoms over hours or days - some strokes take time to onset
• Hemiparesis
• Hemiplegia
• One-sided numbness

See full list of 33 symptoms of Stroke

Home Diagnostic Testing

Home medical testing related to Stroke:

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Medical Textbooks Online about Stroke

Book excerpts: Copyright © 2008 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. All rights reserved.

Diagnostic Tests for Stroke

• Neurological exam
• Blood tests
• Brain CT scan
• Brain MRI scan
• Blood flow tests

See full list of 10 diagnostic tests for Stroke

Wrongly Diagnosed with Stroke?

• Misdiagnosis of Stroke
• Failure to diagnose Stroke
• Underlying causes of Stroke (possibly wrongly diagnosed)
• Failure to diagnose Stroke

Misdiagnosis and Stroke

Unnecessary hysterectomies due to undiagnosed bleeding disorder in women: The bleeding disorder called Von Willebrand's disease is quite common in women, but...read more »

Undiagnosed stroke leads to misdiagnosed aphasia: BBC News UK reported on a man who had been institutionalized and treated for mental illness because he suffered from sudden...read more »

Alzheimer's disease over-diagnosed: The well-known disease of Alzheimer's disease is often over-diagnosed. Patients tend to assume that any...read more »

Dementia may be a drug interaction: A common scenario in aged care is for a patient to show mental decline to dementia. Whereas this can, of course, occur due to various medical conditions, such as a stroke...read more »

Tremor need not be Parkinson's disease: There is the tendency to believe that any tremor symptom, or shakiness, means Parkinson's disease. The reality is that there are various possibilities, such as benign essential tremor,...read more »

Mild traumatic brain injury often remains undiagnosed: Although the symptoms of severe brain injury are hard to miss, it is less clear for milder...read more »

MTBI misdiagnosed as balance problem: When a person has symptoms such as vertigo or dizziness, a diagnosis of brain injury may go overlooked. This is particularly true of mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI), for which the...read more »

Rare diseases misdiagnosed as Parkinson's disease: A rare genetic disorder is often misdiagnosed as Parkinson's disease for men in their 50's. The...read more »

Brain pressure condition often misdiagnosed as dementia: A condition that results from an excessive pressure of CSF within the brain is often misdiagnosed. It may be misdiagnosed as Parkinson's disease or dementia ...read more »

Post-concussive brain injury often misdiagnosed: A study found that soldiers who had suffered a concussive injury in battle often were misdiagnosed on...read more »

Children with migraine often misdiagnosed: A migraine often fails to be correctly diagnosed in pediatric patients. These patients are not the typical migraine sufferers, but migraines can also occur in...read more »

Read more about Misdiagnosis and Stroke

Causes of Stroke

• Atherosclerosis
• Hypertension
• Thrombosis
• Embolism
• Cerebral hemorrhage

See full list of 12 causes of Stroke

More information about causes of Stroke:

• Medications, drugs, or substances causing Stroke (145 listings)
• Drug interactions causing Stroke (487 listings)
• Underlying causes of Stroke
• Stroke as a complication caused by other conditions
• Stroke as a symptom
• Medical news summaries relating to Causes of Stroke
• Cause statistics for Stroke

Treatments for Stroke

• Acute stroke treatments - the treatments that may be used during a stroke.
  • Immediately call emergency help - usually 911 in the USA
  • Emergency treatment
  • Hospitalization
  • Medications

See full list of 15 treatments for Stroke

Videos for Stroke

Patient Surveys for Stroke

• Patient Profile Survey
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• Survey about the symptoms of your Stroke
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Prognosis for Stroke

Prognosis for Stroke: Unpredictable. About 20% of patients die in hospital. Others have complications of stroke.

More about prognosis of Stroke

Reseach about Stroke

Visit our research pages for current research about Stroke treatments.

Prevention of Stroke

Prevention information for Stroke has been compiled from various data sources and may be inaccurate or incomplete. None of these methods guarantee prevention of Stroke.

• Lifestyle changes
  • Healthy diet
  • Control blood pressure
  • Control diabetes
  • Control stress

Read more about prevention of Stroke

Statistics for Stroke

• Medical statistics for Stroke
• Prevalence and incidence statistics for Stroke
• Death and Mortality statistics for Stroke
• Society statistics for Stroke

Types of Stroke

• Ischemic stroke - from reduced blood flow to a brain area.
• Hemorrhagic stroke - from bleeding in the brain.
• Right hemisphere stroke - a right brain stroke affecting the left side of the body.
• Left hemisphere stroke - a left brain stroke affecting the right side of the body.
• Cerebellar stroke - a stroke occurring in the cerebellum

See full list of 6 Types of Stroke

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User Interactive Forums

Read about other experiences, ask a question about Stroke, or answer someone else's question, on our message boards:

• I can not get a diagnosis. Please help.
• Tell us your medical story.
• Share your misdiagnosis story.
• What is the best treatment for this?
• See all the forums.

Article Excerpts about Stroke

NINDS Stroke Information Page: NINDS (Excerpt)

A stroke occurs when the blood supply to the part of the brain is suddenly interrupted (ischemic) or when a blood vessel in the brain bursts, spilling blood into the spaces surrounding the brain cells (hemorrhagic). (Source: excerpt from NINDS Stroke Information Page: NINDS)

Stroke: NWHIC (Excerpt)

A stroke is sometimes called a "brain attack." A stroke can injure the brain like a heart attack can injure the heart. Stroke is the result of cerebrovascular disease—disease of the blood vessels in the brain. (Source: excerpt from Stroke: NWHIC)

Stroke Prevention and Treatment - Age Page - Health Information: NIA (Excerpt)

A stroke (sometimes called a "brain attack") happens when blood circulation to the brain fails. A few minutes without oxygen and important nutrients from the blood can damage or kill affected brain cells. Sometimes cell damage can be repaired and some lost skills regained. However, the death of brain cells is permanent. (Source: excerpt from Stroke Prevention and Treatment - Age Page - Health Information: NIA)

Definitions of Stroke:

A sudden, nonconvulsive loss of neurologic function due to an ischemic or hemorrhagic intracranial vascular event. In general, cerebrovascular accidents are classified by anatomic location in the brain, vascular distribution, etiology, age of the affected individual, and hemorrhagic vs. nonhemorrhagic nature. (From Adams et al., Principles of Neurology, 6th ed, pp777-810) - (Source - Diseases Database)

(sports) the act of swinging or striking at a ball with a club or racket or bat or cue or hand; "it took two strokes to get out of the bunker"; "a good shot require good balance and tempo"; "he left me an almost impossible shot" - (Source - WordNet 2.1)