A headache is not necessarily a precursor to a cerebral infarction.
There are many causes of headaches. Besides cerebral infarction, they can also be caused by cerebral hemorrhage, subarachnoid hemorrhage, trigeminal neuralgia, brain tumors, meningitis, or by other non-neurological problems, such as sinusitis, glaucoma, and high blood pressure.
Cerebral infarction is most common in middle-aged and elderly people with risk factors such as smoking, hypertension and diabetes mellitus, and often starts in quiet or during sleep, and some patients may have a history of transient ischemic attack.
The clinical manifestations mainly depend on the location and size of the infarct foci as well as the ability of collateral circulation, which are mostly characterized by headache, blurred vision, crooked mouth and eyes, slurred speech, numbness and weakness of limbs, etc. The focal signs mostly reach the peak more than 10 hours or 1~2 days after the onset of the disease.
If headache occurs or accompanied by other symptoms, it is recommended to go to the regular hospital in time to avoid delay.