Catching the signs before a stroke

  Cerebrovascular accident, also known as stroke, is an impairment of cerebral blood circulation and functional or structural damage to brain tissue caused by obstruction or rupture of a cerebral blood vessel. There are two major categories of stroke: ischemic and hemorrhagic. Hemorrhagic stroke includes cerebral hemorrhage or subarachnoid hemorrhage; ischemic stroke includes cerebral artery thrombosis, cerebral embolism, lacunar cerebral infarction, and transient ischemic attack; as the so-called ‘six diseases of stroke’. Ischemic stroke has the highest incidence, accounting for about 60%-70% of the total number of stroke patients, mainly cerebral thrombosis and cerebral embolism. The former is caused by the narrowing of arteries and the gradual formation of thrombus in the lumen which eventually blocks the artery, while the latter is caused by the dislodgement of thrombus or other emboli into the blood stream which blocks the cerebral artery.  According to the information published by WHO, the mortality rate of stroke in China is the first. The incidence rate in China is 185-219/100,000, the prevalence rate is 719-745.6/100,000, the mortality rate is 116-141.8/100,000, and the ratio of men to women is 1.3:1-1.7:1. As the age increases, its incidence rate rises, and generally increases significantly above 45 years of age, the most obvious increase in people over 65 years of age, and the incidence rate above 75 years of age is 5-8 times that of 45-54 years of age. Stroke is one of the three major killers that seriously endanger human health. In China’s urban residents, stroke is far more dangerous than malignant tumors and heart disease, but it receives far less attention than malignant tumors and heart disease. At present, there are 7 million surviving stroke patients in China, which is equivalent to the resident population of a large city.  Hypertension, diabetes and heart disease are all risk factors for stroke, the most important of which is hypertension. However, at present, there is far less awareness of these risk factors, so there will still be about 2.5 million new cases of stroke each year. The condition is aggressive at the onset. The onset of stroke is related to environmental factors, dietary habits and climate, and the overall distribution of stroke incidence in China is characterized by a high north and low south, and a high west and low east. The incidence of stroke is high, the mortality rate is high, the recurrence rate is high, the disability rate is higher, and about 60% to 80% of patients who survive a stroke have varying degrees of disability. These ‘four high’ characteristics not only affect the health and life expectancy of the population, but also threaten the life of the patient and significantly reduce the survivor’s ability to work and quality of life.  Stroke often develops without obvious aura; however, if you pay attention to careful observation before the stroke occurs, you can still find some abnormal aura. Be alert and catch these signs, timely detection, timely prevention and control, can often prevent the occurrence of stroke. The Chinese medicine advocates: “the doctor treats the disease before it happens”. Prevention, at all times, should be the first priority. The hints before a stroke, called stroke aura, often have the following manifestations: 1, dizziness, headache: sudden dizziness, or the original dizziness, headache aggravated, or from intermittent headache to continuous severe headache. It is generally believed that headache and dizziness are mostly the aura of ischemic stroke; while severe headache with nausea and vomiting are mostly the aura of hemorrhagic stroke.  2, transient visual impairment: manifested as blurred vision, or visual field defects, see things incomplete; or even momentary sudden blindness. This phenomenon mostly recovers on its own within an hour, which is an earlier forecast signal of cerebral infarction.  3, language and mental changes: refers to articulation difficulties, aphasia, temporary slurred words or speech; or writing difficulties. Sudden change of personality, silent, indifferent expression or impatient and talkative, irritable. Or appear drowsy state, i.e. drowsy all day long; or appear transient judgment or intellectual impairment; or have transient loss of consciousness.  4, nausea and vomiting: nausea and vomiting or erratic, or blood pressure fluctuation with dizziness, dizziness, tinnitus; unexplained recurrent and frequent nosebleeds, often as a precursor of hypertensive cerebral hemorrhage.  5. Sleepiness and drowsiness: manifested as yawning, often as a sign of hypoxia in the respiratory center. As cerebral arteriosclerosis worsens, the arterial lumen becomes narrower and narrower, and cerebral ischemia deteriorates seriously, about 80% of people tend to yawn frequently 5 to 10 days before the onset of ischemic cerebral infarction, so do not ignore this important alarm signal.  6. Somatic sensory and motor abnormalities: sudden weakness or inflexible activity of one limb, with sporadic onset and off; sometimes episodic unilateral limb numbness or weakness, loss of hand grip on objects; or involuntary twitching of one side or one limb; unexplained fainting or falling, unilateral facial paralysis, lasting less than 24 hours. Follow-up observation, such phenomena occur 3 to 5 years after the occurrence of ischemic cerebral infarction in about half of the people.  7, razor landing phenomenon: is in the process of shaving with a razor, when the head turned to the side, suddenly feel the arm holding the razor weakness, razor landing, can be accompanied by slurred speech, but often in about 1 ~ 2 minutes completely back to normal. This is due to the fact that when the neck is turned, it aggravates the already sclerotic carotid artery stenosis, resulting in insufficient cranial blood supply and a transient cerebral ischemic attack: it often indicates that an ischemic stroke may occur at any time.  If everyone understands the various aura before a stroke, and is alert immediately after the aura appears, and catches these signs and takes necessary measures, a stroke can be effectively avoided. In particular, it should be noted that these aura signs are not specific, that is, there are many other diseases that can also appear similar symptoms. Therefore, when the aura of stroke appears, it is necessary to go to the hospital in time to ask the doctor to give the correct diagnosis, differential diagnosis and treatment, and should not be careless and miss the best time to deal with it.