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:The article is about stroke as medical term. For other uses of stroke, see stroke (disambiguation).

A stroke or cerebrovascular accident (CVA) occurs when the blood supply to a part of the brain is suddenly interrupted by occlusion (an ischemic stroke) or by hemorrhage (a hemorrhagic stroke). The former, ischemia, is a reduction of blood flow due to occlusion (an obstruction). The latter, hemorrhagic stroke, occurs when a blood vessel in the brain bursts, spilling blood into the spaces surrounding the brain cells or when a cerebral aneurysm ruptures.

Strokes cause loss of brain function in the affected area. A stroke is a medical emergency.

1 Causes

The ischemic stroke is usually caused by atherosclerosis (hardening) of blood vessels, embolus (a piece of blood clot originating from atherosclerotic plaque or heart) or small artery disease (the occlusion of small cerebral vessels).

Risk factors (for atherosclerosis and small vessel disease) are hypertension (high blood pressure), diabetes mellitus, elevated blood lipid levels and cigarette smoking. High blood pressure is the main cause of stroke. Atrial fibrillation and other arrhythmias can lead to clot formation in the heart, which embolise to the brain. Some forms of thrombophilia (increased coagulation tendency) have a predilection for arterial thrombosis and stroke; these include polycythemia vera and the rare paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuriaParoxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria is a rare disease characterised by aplastic anemia, thrombosis and red urine in the morning due to breakdown of red blood cells. Signs and symptoms As the name implies, the hemoglobin appears in urine in attacks (paroxy.

2 Signs and symptoms

The symptoms of stroke are usually easy to spot:

sudden numbness or weakness, especially on one side of the body;
- reflexes can be decreased on the affected side, but are often livelier than on the other side
- the face is normally spared (as this is served by both hemispheres), but the corner of the mouth can be affected on the same side as the limb symptoms
sudden confusionConfusion can have the following meanings: Unclarity, e. arising from ambiguity. A technical concept in cryptography; see Confusion and diffusion. Mental confusion (such as paranoia) may be caused by drugs or mental illness. It is an imprecise term but ca or aphasiaAphasia is a loss or impairment of the ability to produce or comprehend language, due to brain damage. It is usually a result of damage to the language centres of the brain and can be caused by a stroke or physical injury. Depending on the area and extent (trouble speaking) or understanding speech;
sudden trouble seeing in one eyeThis article refers to the sight organ. See Eye (disambiguation) for other usages. human eye. Note that not all eyes have the same anatomy as a human eye. An eye is an organ that detects light. Different kinds of light-sensitive organ are found in a varie (or rarely both);
sudden trouble walking, dizziness, or loss of balance or coordination.

A subgroup loses conciousness as part of the initial presentation. This occurs more often in bleeding than in thrombosis.

A sudden-onset severe headache can denote subarachnoid hemorrhage, which is a stroke-like clinical entity. Some other forms of stroke can feature headaches.

If the symptoms resolve within an hour, or maximum 24 hours, the diagnosis is transient ischemic attack (TIA), and not stroke. This syndrome may be a warning sign, and a proportion of patients develop strokes in the future. Treatment is with aspirin.

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Cerebrovascular diseaseCerebrovascular disease is damage to the blood vessels in the brain, resulting in a stroke. The blood vessels can become blocked because of fat deposits, or a wandering blood clot, blocking the flow of blood to a part of the brain. Sometimes, the blood ve

Cerebrovascular accidentThe article is about stroke as medical term. For other uses of stroke, see stroke (disambiguation). A stroke or cerebrovascular accident CVA occurs when the blood supply to a part of the brain is suddenly interrupted by occlusion (an ischemic stroke) or b

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