What is Brain Stroke or Acute Ischemic Stroke?
What is brain stroke? Brain stroke is defined as sudden development of neurological deficits due to a vascular event. The patient may have hemiparesis i.e. inability to move limbs on one side of the body. There may be inability to speak and variable degree of impairment of consciousness. The underlying cause of brain stroke is either a sudden occlusion of an intracranial vessel due to blood clot or it can be due to intracranial bleeding. That due to sudden occlusion of a vessel is known as acute ischemic stroke. (For intracranial bleeding, look up Aneurysmal Subarachnoid haemorrhage ). Who is affected by acute ischemic stroke?& what are the causes? Brain stroke can happen at any age. But often middle aged and elderly are affected. It is often due to a blood clot migrating from diseased neck vessels like in atheromatous plaque or diseased heart as in valvular disease or atrial fibrillation. Neck vessel disease can be due to atherosclerosis. This is seen in elderly