Transient cerebral ischemic attack

  Transient ischemic attack, also known as transient ischemic attack, TIA (Transient IschemicAttack), refers to one or more cerebrovascular ischemia resulting in focal cerebral dysfunction in that blood supply area, with focal neurological symptoms and signs that last from minutes to hours, past opinion is that TIA attack lasts no more than 24 hours, if the clinical appearance of The diagnosis of TIA was considered if the clinical symptoms and signs disappeared within 24 hours after the onset of the attack. With the continuous improvement of examination methods, it has been found that CT or MRI of the brain can detect ischemic foci in most of the patients after the so-called TIA. Studies suggest that the average time to onset of a TIA is 14 minutes in the internal carotid artery and 8 minutes in the vertebral basilar artery. 1/3 of patients with a TIA will develop a stroke, and the initial stroke often recurs. With advances in therapeutics, the time window is critical for ischemic stroke. The current thesis is that a TIA episode that does not recover within one hour should be considered a stroke and should be aggressively investigated and treated.  The diagnosis of TIA relies on history and physical examination. Since the attack has already ended by the time the patient is seen, it is more important to ask questions about the attack. Include whether there is a trigger before the attack? What are the first symptoms? Status at the time of seizure (dynamic? Static?) The patient’s clinical presentation  Clinical manifestations (1) TIA of the internal carotid artery system with sudden onset of transient lateral motor or sensory disturbance, transient darkness in one eye; transient aphasia (dominant hemisphere ischemia).  (2) TIA of the vertebrobasilar system mainly presents with: vertigo, nausea, vomiting, diplopia, transient black haze; crossed motor and sensory impairment; transient loss of consciousness or sudden collapse attack.  Ancillary tests: CT scan of the head, MRI, electrocardiogram and TCD should be done at the initial diagnosis, especially the first two special tests. CT scan is especially important for patients with TIA who have hemiplegia. There are many patients with TIA who have non-ischemic vascular disease on CT, including small focal hemorrhage and subdural hematoma, especially a few patients with cerebral hemorrhage who have similar clinical presentation. Therefore, an early CT scan can help in the differential diagnosis of TIA.  Differentiation: It needs to be differentiated from simple sudden collapse attack; syncope; cardiogenic ischemic syndrome (A-Syndrome); epilepsy; hysteria and other diseases with sudden onset of consciousness.  Treatment: Etiological treatment is the main focus. There are different treatment methods according to the cause of onset.  1, hypertensive cerebral vasospasm theory: If the patient’s TIA attack is closely related to the increase in blood pressure and TCD suggests partial vasospasm, then the patient can be treated with vasodilator drugs to lower blood pressure and calcium antagonists, including nimodipine or loxodil.  2, high blood viscosity, hypercoagulable state theory: If the patient is found to have excessive platelets or higher than normal fibrinogen and high platelet aggregation in the blood components, then the patient should be treated with targeted drugs such as anti-platelet aggregation drugs.  3.Microembolism theory: Microembolism refers to the microembolism dropped from the heart and the microembolism shed by the sclerotic plaque of large blood vessels, which temporarily embolizes the small blood vessels at the end. In this case, in addition to reducing blood viscosity, anticoagulants such as oral warfarin or injection of low molecular heparin can be used.  4.Surgical treatment of carotid artery stenosis (carotid A endarterectomy). In addition, patients with coronary artery disease, arrhythmia, cardiac insufficiency and valvular disease should be actively treated for heart disease.  The risk of stroke is much higher in patients with TIA than in the general population. The incidence of stroke is significantly lower in the vertebrobasilar artery than in the internal carotid artery.