Unilateral weakness or numbness of a limb, slurred speech, and blurred vision can be signs of a “mini-stroke.” Even if symptoms go away within an hour, call 911 or go to an emergency room immediately, advises the American Heart Association.
A mini-stroke is also called a transient ischemic attack (TIA) by medical professionals. The blood flow to the brain is temporarily blocked. Although it does not cause permanent damage, the risk of a stroke is high: almost one in five people suspected of having a TIA will have a stroke within the next three months – in half of the cases within two days. In the emergency room, two out of five people with a suspected TIA are diagnosed with a “real” stroke.
Experts therefore recommend that you go to an emergency room if you experience these sudden symptoms. These include:
- a sagging of the face
- weakness on one side of the body
- numbness on one side of the body
- slurred speech and difficulty finding the right words
- Dizziness, loss of vision, or difficulty walking
This also applies if the symptoms subside and last less than an hour.
“Confidently diagnosing a TIA is difficult because most patients are functional by the time they arrive in the emergency room,” said Dr. Hardik P. Amin of Yale New Haven Hospital in Connecticut. Therefore, other health problems such as hypoglycaemia, epilepsy or a migraine attack must also be ruled out. This is done, for example, through laboratory analyzes and imaging studies of the blood vessels in the head and neck. If a TIA is diagnosed, cardiological examinations follow, since cardiac arrhythmias can be the cause of a TIA or a stroke. The risk of a future stroke is also determined and appropriate treatment is initiated to prevent it.
Which: DOI 10.1161/STR.0000000000000418