Stroke Questions

1. FAQ: How Can Atrial Fibrillation (A-Fib) Cause Stroke?

   Atrial fibrillation, also called A-fib, can cause a stroke as a result of the irregular beating of the heart's upper chambers, which sometimes results in blood forming clots in the heart. (A normally beating heart moves all blood along so efficiently that clots can't form...
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2. FAQ: What's My Risk of Stroke From Atrial Fibrillation (A-Fib)?

   The risk of stroke due to atrial fibrillation goes up with age. Those in their 50s who don't take blood thinners have about a 1.3 percent chance of stroke every year. The risk goes up to about 5 percent per year for those in their 80s who have atrial fibrillation and don't take blood thinners.
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3. FAQ: Is Atrial Fibrillation (A-Fib) Dangerous?

   Atrial fibrillation, also called A-fib, can cause potentially life-threatening health problems, including stroke and heart failure.
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4. What's the difference between TIA and stroke?

   The main difference is that a TIA (what some people cause a ministroke) doesn't cause lasting damage. A TIA, which stands for transient ischemc attack, and a stroke are caused by the same problem: blood clots that lodge in the brain. But some people get lucky and recover quickly without any lasting damage...
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5. What Is Carotid Artery Disease?

   Carotid artery disease is what happens when the carotid arteries -- a pair of major arteries running up either side of the neck that carry blood to the brain -- fill up with plaque, becoming narrower and restricting blood flow. The condition is called carotid artery occlusive disease, and it often happens...
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6. What Is a Major Stroke?

   The term major stroke is used to distinguish a full-blown stroke from a minor stroke, or transient ischemic attack (TIA). A TIA is essentially a temporary stroke that resolves on its own without causing permanent damage. When doctors say someone suffered a major stroke, they really just mean a stroke...
   FAQ 1 Expert Answer, 5 Community Answers

7. Is Surgery the Best Treatment for Carotid Artery Disease?

   Your best bet is probably to use the same criteria most doctors use. For starters, we look at just how badly the artery is blocked. If the artery is more than 80 percent blocked, surgery may be the best option. However, there are many other factors to look at...
   FAQ 1 Expert Answer, 1 Community Answer

8. What's the "Golden Hour," and What Does It Mean for Strokes?

   In stroke care, the term golden hour is used to designate the hour immediately following the onset of stroke symptoms. (Trauma centers use the general term golden hour to indicate the first hour after a trauma has occurred.)
   FAQ 1 Expert Answer, 6 Community Answers

9. Why Must You Get to a Hospital Immediately After a Stroke?

   Studies have consistently shown that if patients receive treatment within an hour after their stroke symptoms begin -- the period known as the "golden hour" -- they're much more likely to make a full recovery. Patients whose strokes require treatment with the clot-busting drug tissue plasminogen activator...
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10. What can I do about my mother, who is being verbally abusive due to a stroke?

    This is a tricky issue. It sounds like your mother’s stroke did damage to the behavior centers in the brain. If she is extremely verbally abusive to you and your children, you should make every effort to have her moved to a more supervised setting, such as an assisted living center or nursing home. ...
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11. Are my headaches and feeling like I can't breathe related to my stroke?

    Headaches are somewhat of a rare complication of stroke - in my experience, more commonly seen with "bleeding" strokes than with "clotting" strokes. When they occur, they can indicate swelling, bleeding, artery tearing, clotting in the veins, or a very tight (nearly occluded) artery...
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12. Are tremors likely after a stroke?

    The answer to this question depends on what you mean by "tremors". That term makes me think of two different possibilities - seizures or clonus.
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13. Will he recover from this stroke?

    Unfortunately, I don't have a great answer for you. Recovery after a stroke is notoriously hard to predict. The only rule that is almost always true is that the patient should not get worse over time. Beyond that, some people make no recovery, some people make a moderate recovery, and some people make a complete recovery...
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14. What is a RIND stroke?

    RIND stands for "Reversible Ischemic Neurological Deficit". It is a term that is not widely used anymore. In layman's terms, it means a stroke that the patient was able to fully recover from within a few weeks. This is opposed to a TIA, or "Transient Ischemic Attack", in which the patient recovers within 24 hours...
    1 Expert Answer, 1 Community Answer

15. Is the skin problem stroke related?

    I haven't heard of this exact type of thing happening to someone after a stroke. Two things come to mind, however. The first is that he could be having pressure sores or stasis swelling from not moving the arm and leg (I am assuming that the dryness is only on the side affected by the stroke)...
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16. After my stroke, I lost my sense of taste. Will this change?

    I have heard a few people tell me that they lost their sense of taste after a stroke. In general, I think of this as being similar to other deficits after a stroke. Gauging how much and how quickly an improvement will occur is very difficult.
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17. Is it better to bring him home or force him to stay in rehab?

    Dear DadandMe: It sounds as if you are under pressure to make a serious decision about continuing rehab at home instead of in the rehab center. I'm sorry you must struggle with this question, for which there is no simple answer.
    1 Expert Answer, 9 Community Answers

18. After a stroke, are seizures normal?

    Seizures after a stroke are not too uncommon, and can present long after the initial stroke occurred. They are due to scarring of the normal pathways in the brain - I often compare this to an electrical fire in a building with damaged wires. And, at his age, it is not unrealistic to think that the seizures would make him sedated for several days...
    1 Expert Answer, 1 Community Answer

19. Is loss of appetite normal as you age?

    It is true that our appetite declines as we age. There are many possible explanations for this, among them a decrease in activity or energy levels and a declining sense of taste and smell – both of which will impact appetite. A decrease in appetite is also a side effect of some medicatio...
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20. Does this really represent no brain activity after a stroke?

    Let me first start by saying that as a stroke physician, I typically do not see patients with ruptured aneurysms - they are more commonly followed by Neurosurgeons - so please take this answer with "a grain of salt", so to speak.
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