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Stroke And Vision Loss

hosnee — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 10:12:36 +0000

Stroke is one of the largest causes for the death. It is a medical emergency and it should be treated immediately. The blockage or rupture of an artery to the brain disrupts the blood flow to the brain. As a result, the oxygen and nutrient cannot be delivered to the brain and causes the death to brain cells. The brain function becomes abnormal which leads to stroke. A stroke can be referred as Cerebrovascular accident also.

Causes:

There are many causes for the stroke. It can be due to blockage of an artery in the brain or a clot formed in a blood vessel due to high blood pressure or diabetes. There are many forms of strokes. An embolic stroke occurs when the blood clots in the inner lining of heart breaks off and travel through blood stream and form a plug in a brain artery.

A cerebral hemorrhage also causes stroke by depriving the blood and oxygen supply to the brain.

The most common risk factor for stroke is the High Blood Pressure. The other risk factors are diabetes and certain heart condition.

Symptoms:

1. Sudden numbness or tingling sensation on one side of body, face or arm or leg.

2. Sudden trouble in speaking, seeing and walking.

3. Severe headache with no known reason.

4. Sudden vision loss.

Vision Loss

Vision loss should not be ignored. It could be the result of serious conditions such as stroke, hypertension, and epilepsy. Many patients loss vision because of stroke. Generally, a stroke on one side of brain affects the vision of opposite side. There is no treatment for the patients who have lost vision due to stroke.

The other causes for the vision loss are eye injury, muscular degeneration, cataract, glaucoma, vitamin A deficiency.

Prevention:

Prevention is always better than cure. A stroke can be prevented by controlling blood pressure and sugar.

Treatment:

TPA is the medicine used for treating stroke. Heparin and Aspirin also helps for the treatment of stroke. Treatment of blood pressure is necessary for treating stroke. Controlling the glucose level is also necessary for treating the stroke.

Screening And Diagnosis Of Stroke

hosnee — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:42:36 +0000

Proper and quick diagnosis is the most important factor in the treatment of any disease. Unless you correctly diagnose the disease, you can’t give the adequate treatment. The stroke is one of the serious problems resulted from the inadequate blood supply to the brain. It can lead to permanent damage to the brain cells and some disabilities. Generally, the disabilities caused due to the stroke are permanent. They completely change the lifestyle of the stroke victim. Hence, it is very essential to consider the stroke as medical emergency and treat it immediately.

Screening and diagnosis of stroke is meant for detecting the type of stroke and its location. Other possible causes of the symptoms like a tumor can be eliminated by performing some tests. Some of the common methods of screening and diagnosis of stroke are physical examination, some blood tests, carotid ultrasonography, arteriography, CT scan, MRI scan, electroencephalogram, Doppler ultrasound test, digital subtraction angiography and radionuclide angiography.

First of all, the physician takes complete medical history. In the physical examination, the doctor checks the blood pressure and pulse. The neurological examination involves tests of nerves and muscles. The blood tests involve the determination of elevated levels of cholesterol, blood glucose and the amino acid, homocysteine. They are the high risk factors for the stroke. If the whooshing sound is heard through the stethoscope, it indicates the atherosclerosis.

There are some advance techniques available for the diagnosis of stroke. The carotid/Doppler ultrasonography features the use of high frequency sound waves. In the arteriography, the doctor inserts a flexible, thin tube through the small incision in the groin. Then, a dye is injected through the catheter to provide the x-ray images of the arteries.

In the computerized tomography/CT scan, a dye is injected into the vein. The x-ray beams create the three-dimensional image of the blood vessels present in the neck and brain. It helps to detect the arteriovenous malformations and aneurysms and to evaluate the narrowing of the arteries. The Magnetic Resonance Imaging/MRI scan features the use of strong magnetic field. This is a sensitive test for detection of the area of the brain tissue damaged by the ischemic stroke. The electroencephalogram and evoked response test are performed to detect the brain’s electrical activity. The tests performed to determine the blood flow in the brain are Doppler ultrasound test, carotid phonoangiography and digital subtraction angiography.

Signs Of Stroke

hosnee — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:24:36 +0000

The stroke is a condition of body caused due to interrupted or severely reduced blood supply to the part of brain. Due to this condition, the brain tissues don’t get sufficient amount of oxygen and nutrients. As a result, the brain cells start to die. It causes damage to brain and potential disability. Knowing signs of stroke makes it possible to get the proper treatment.

The stroke is a cardiovascular disease characterized by the lack of blood supply to whole or part of brain. The physical signs of stroke include sudden weakness or paralysis of the face, leg or arm. It usually happens on one side of the body. The person feels sudden difficulty in speaking or understanding the speech. There is sudden blurred, decreased or double vision. The person also experiences loss of balance, loss of co-ordination and sudden dizziness.

The person complains severe or unusual headache which is accompanied by the facial pain, stiff neck, pain between the eyes, altered consciousness or vomiting. Confusion, spatial orientation or perception and problems with memory are commonly observed. In some cases, the symptoms appear slowly in few days or weeks. The severity of the symptoms depends upon the part of brain damaged and number of brain cells affected.

The ischemic strokes affect the regional areas of the brain. The hemorrhagic strokes affect the local areas. If the stroke affects the brainstem, the symptoms include altered taste, vision, smell and hearing, balance problems, altered heart rate and breathing, decreased reflexes, muscle weakness and reduced sensation, weakness in tongue and drooping of eyelid and weakness of the ocular muscles.

The signs of stroke occur alone or in the combination. The people previously suffered from the stroke or by the transient ischemic attacks have more risk of stroke in future. The people with high blood pressure or other type of cardiovascular disease are at the high risk of stroke.

The persons with the signs of stroke should be prepared for the emergency. Always keep the list of emergency service numbers. You should know about the nearest emergency hospital. Don’t ignore even a single sign of stroke.

Stop Stroke

hosnee — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:21:36 +0000

A stroke occurs when the blood supply to a part of the brain suddenly stops or is interrupted. The brain cells don’t receive oxygen and nutrients that blood supplies with it hence they are damaged or dead. Effects of the stroke depend upon the severity and damage happened. So it is better to prevent such disease. What causes the stroke is the thing we must know to avoid the stroke. Normally stroke triggers are surprisingly routine things like drinking alcohol, lifting a large box. High blood pressure is a huge risk factor for stroke in people who have had previous stroke. High blood pressure and high cholesterol are the risk factors. Researchers have interviewed the people who had strokes, what they had done in 24 hours before stroke. They found that

Doppler Ultrasound For Stroke

hosnee — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:27:36 +0000

The stroke is a very serious condition and should be taken as the medical emergency. If the prompt treatment is not taken, it can cause permanent damage of brain tissue and even causes death. For the proper treatment, the quick and accurate diagnosis is very essential. There are different methods of diagnosis of stroke such as MRI scan, CT scan, electroencephalogram, Doppler ultrasound test and carotid phonoangiography.

The Doppler Ultrasound for stroke is an imaging procedure in which ultrasound or high-frequency sound waves are used for detecting the blockages in the carotid artery. A Doppler ultrasound test features the use of reflected sound waves to evaluate the blood flow through the blood vessel. It helps to evaluate the blood flow through the veins and major arteries of neck, legs and arms. You can detect reduced or blocked blood flow due to narrowing of the main arteries of the neck that can lead to stroke. The Doppler ultra-sound also detects the blood clots present in the leg veins which can block the blood flow to the lungs. It is called as the pulmonary embolism. It is one of the reasons of stroke.

During the Doppler ultra-sound, a handheld instrument called the transducer is passed over the skin above the blood vessel. It sends and receives the sound waves which are magnified through the microphone. These sound waves detect the solid objects including the blood cells. The movements of the blood cells change the pitch of the reflected sound waves. It is called as the Doppler Effect. If there is no blood flow, the pitch will not change. The information obtained from the reflected sound waves is processed by a computer to provide the pictures or graphs. They represent the blood flow through the vessels. These graphs are saved for further evaluation.

The Doppler ultrasound test is very important in the diagnosis of stroke. A Doppler instrument or probe is placed on the neck close to the carotid artery. The probe generates the ultrasound waves that travel through the neck and detect the moving blood cells. The reflected sound waves return to the probe at various frequencies. These frequencies are detected by the probe. The change in the frequency is associated with the speed of the blood cells and the blood flow.

Physical Examination Of Stroke

hosnee — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 20:23:36 +0000

When you experience a stroke, you should immediately seek the doctor to get the proper treatment and prevent it from becoming worse. When you visit the doctor, he will start by giving a physical examination so that he can find out what type of stroke you have faced. This physical examination of the stroke includes the following processes:

* Observing how you act and look- the doctor observes your body carefully to see if there are any specific signs of the stroke are visible. For e.g. if he observes that your skin has a bluish tone, it means that there is a problem with your heart. If you are found pale it clearly indicates that you are anemic. He also sees carefully any signs related to stroke are present on your body like paralysis or weakness of one side of the body, trouble in understanding the speech or speaking.

* Listening to your bowels and the lungs- this is done to listen to the sounds that may indicate some problems. The doctor may also tap on your body to hear the kind of sound it makes, whether is normal or different from the normal ones.

* Listening to your heart- he carefully listens to the rhythm of the heart to find out if there are any sounds that may be problematic or causing the disorder. He may check your pulse rate in different parts of the body to check if there are any areas in the body that has a problem with the normal flow of the blood.

* Looking in your eyes- this is to see if there are any signs if hemorrhage (blood spots), decline in the blood flow or high blood pressure seen. He checks your blood pressure levels to see if they are normal and also checks your reflexes.

* Asking a number of questions to you and your family members- these questions include what medications you are taking right now, what warning signs did you notice, if anyone in the family had a problem of strokes or heart diseases, your medical record, your health history, etc.

Based on these physical examinations of stroke, the doctor suggests an appropriate medical treatment to relieve you from the stroke.

Language Therapy For Stroke Victims

hosnee — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 03:26:36 +0000

A stroke can cause some serious consequences. These consequences may not be only physical as a stroke also alters the way of thinking of the victim. One of the most serious consequences of a stroke is language disability. More commonly called “Aphasia” in the medical community, linguistic disability is caused due the lack of supply of blood or the stoppage of blood supply to the left part of the brain. This is because the left part of the brain is responsible for the languages.

There are many different types of aphasia. The types and level of the disability varies from patient to patient. In one type, a patient may forget the name of any object though he may know the use of it. In another type, the patient fails to understand the basic concepts like the difference between today and tomorrow. In a third type the patient can talk fluently but cannot understand what is being said to him. In another type, patients can understand what is being said to them but they cannot speak properly. In over 60% of patients this linguistic disability is curable completely.

There are different methods to assess the language impairment. The methods are totally different for infants, school going children, teenagers and adults. The assessments firstly check the form, content, understanding and the use of language and articulation also. The speech therapists use the following techniques to cure the language therapy.

* They provide screening, prevention, consultation, assessment and diagnosis, treatment, management, counselling, and follow-up services for the language disorders.

* In language disorders they consider the comprehension and expression in oral, written, graphic and manual modalities; language processing, preliteracy and language based literacy articles.

* Establishing argumentative and alternative communication techniques and strategies that include development, selection and prescribing of systems and devices.

* Using instrumentation to observe, collect data and measure parameters of communication and swallowing.

The Aphasia, as it is called in the medical community is completely curable. It is proved that if the rehabilitation of a patient has started immediately then there is a 75% chance of the patient with linguistic disability to be cured.

High Cholesterol And Stroke

hosnee — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 19:30:36 +0000

Cholesterol is a fat which is basically found in the animal cells. Our bodies also produce it and they are also absorbed from the food products of animals that we consume such as dairy products, meat, mutton, etc. high levels of cholesterol in the blood results in building up of fats in the arteries that carries the blood through the body. Such a built up of fat causes narrowing or blocking of the arteries. This stops the flow of the blood or the formation of blood clots in the narrowing areas. Having a diet that is too high in saturated fats is the main reason for causing high cholesterols.

Relationship between Stroke and High Cholesterol

A series of large arteries from the neck carry blood to the brain and then it is transferred inside the brain by means of small arteries. Stroke is the result of rapid interruption in the arteries that carry the blood to the different parts of the brain. Due to the damage and loss of functions caused to the different parts of the brain, stroke may also result in long-term disability or death. Excess. When higher amounts of cholesterol are built up in walls of the arteries, the arteries are narrowed or blocked completely. Blood clots are formed that break off and thus travel downwards in the blood to accommodate in the small arteries.

Lowering your Cholesterol Levels and thereby the Risk of Stroke: you can control your cholesterol levels by having a well balanced diet, re3gular exercises to burn up the extra calories and fat in the boy and meditation.

* Keep yourself physically active. Everyday atleast spend half an hour in doing moderate physical activity. You can also consult your doctor for your daily exercise program.

* Consume a diet low in animal fats. Your diet should include a lot of fruits and vegetables. Use olive oil, vegetable oils or spreads like margarine in your food preparation. Regularly eat canned or fresh fish and select6 lean meat. Avoid ready to eat foods that are high in the cholesterol levels like foods such as fatty meats, egg yolks, full fat dairy products, offal, chips, wafers, fast foods, etc.

Stroke Education

hosnee — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:20:36 +0000

A stroke occurs when the blood supply to a part of the brain suddenly stops or is interrupted. The brain cells don’t receive oxygen and nutrients that blood supplies with it hence they are damaged or dead. A stroke is known as ‘cerebrovascular accident’. Severity of the stroke varies depending on the conditions where it occurred and the extent of the damage. Sometimes it may give unconsciousness or death also. On the contrarily a small stroke may not even be noticed as their duration and symptoms are minimum.

Stroke education means everybody should have knowledge of symptoms, causes and the methods to prevent it and avoid it.

There are two main causes of stroke. The stroke caused by a blockage from narrowing of the arteries or clot in the blood vessel supplying the brain, is called as Ischemic stroke.

Hemorrhagic stroke is due to bleeding into or around brain.

The symptoms of the stroke may be sudden numbness or weakness in limbs, vomiting, paralysis especially on one side of the body, sudden confusion, loss of balance or coordination, sudden trouble with one or both eyes, severe headache built up over a number of hours.

Treatment of stroke depends on the cause of stroke. Hemorrhagic stroke may require surgery to stop the bleeding in the brain. The aim of the treatment is to help recovery by treating any underlying cause, to reduce disability and to prevent recurrence. This can be achieved through prescribed drugs, like anticoagulants to thin the blood or medications to reduce blood pressure if it is high.

Stroke can affect many parts of the body so doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, psychologists, speech therapists and physiotherapists, caregivers will be coordinated for treatment and rehabilitation process.

People who survive a stroke may have temporary or permanent disabilities. They may have difficulties in controlling their emotions. More than 25% of people who recovered from their first stroke will have another within 5 years. Depression is a common feature if disabilities prevail. Bed rest may be advised to control the blood pressure.

People who know this information will definitely want to prevent the stroke and they will do the necessary efforts.

Stroke Awareness

hosnee — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 20:52:36 +0000

When brain cells are damaged or dead because of lack of oxygen and nutrients, it is called stroke. Stroke can be of two types Ishchemic stroke and Hemorrhagic stroke.. There are two main causes of stroke. The stroke caused by a blockage from narrowing of the arteries or clot in the blood vessel supplying the brain, is called as Ischemic stroke.

Hemorrhagic stroke is due to bleeding into or around brain.

Prevention is better in case of stroke; hence National Stroke Association is promoting the stroke awareness in people. People should know the symptoms, treatment for stroke as well as the effects of stroke so that they will be tempted to take preventive measures to avoid stroke. Stroke gives sometimes unconsciousness, difficulty in vision, difficulty in speech. But not every time it means a stroke. Numbness in the part of body, sudden headache without any cause are some of the symptoms of the stroke.

Stroke is an emergency and the person should be admitted to the hospital for the further treatment. Since high blood pressure is the biggest risk factor for stroke and 40 % of strokes could be prevented if more people were aware of their high blood pressure and received treatment. There are many measures which could reduce the chances of high blood pressure and therefore the chances of having a stroke.

1) Giving up smoking

2) Controlled consumption of alcohol.

3) Balanced diet including plenty of fruit and vegetables

4) Exercise regularly and be active during the day.

5) Check your blood pressure regularly by your doctor.

6) Reduce the stress level.

Stroke Awareness Day was organized by Stroke Association in Parliament alongside Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland. National stroke association in US is working to promote stroke awareness among people. The mission of the National Stroke Association is making people aware of the stroke risk factors and symptoms and advocate the reintegration of stroke survivors back into meaningful roles in society, to provide medical education to effect more rapid and aggressive treatment, elevate awareness.