What is an embolic stroke?

Embolic stroke is a sharp disruption of the regular blood supply to the brain. By the nature of the disorders, there are two main types of stroke, ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke. Embolic stroke is a type of ischemic stroke.

Embolic strokes occur when there is not enough blood getting to the brain due to blockage or severe narrowing of the major arteries. As a result, brain tissue cells die off.

Due to the death of brain cells, a person loses control over the functions for which this part of the brain is responsible. The severity of these disorders depends on the location of the clot clogging the vessel and the diameter of the vessel that is blocked. Different areas of the brain control different brain functions; for example, when the right brain is affected, weakness or paralysis of the left side of the body develops.

The manifestations of a stroke depend on which area of ​​the brain is affected. Most often, stroke affects people over the age of 60. Every third stroke is fatal. It may take six months or more to restore lost functions after a stroke. Many recover entirely and return to work and fulfilling lives.

Causes and prevention of embolic stroke

The most common cause of Embolic stroke is the movement of a blood clot through an artery and clogging it in a narrow place. A blood clot is blood that is mainly made up of platelets. With normal vascular patency, platelets are responsible for blood clotting, but with atherosclerosis, cholesterol plaques form, narrowing the lumen of the artery; because of this, the usual blood flow is disturbed, side vortices are formed, and platelets stick together into clots. Also, the cause of the formation of a blood clot can be an increased level of sugar in the blood; with it, microtraumas form in the walls of the artery due to an increase in blood density, which also disrupts normal blood flow.

The cause of Embolic stroke can also be narrowing the lumen of a large artery by more than half. When the artery narrows, the blood supply to the brain does not stop completely; therefore, a person often experiences a so-called minor stroke. A minor stroke is similar in symptoms to a regular stroke. Although the degree of damage is much less, this condition requires urgent medical attention; further deterioration of the condition of the arteries can lead to embolic stroke with all its consequences.

A person is not able to influence the movement of a blood clot through the vessels. Still, everyone can pay attention to several risk factors, exclude them if possible to prevent blood clot formation, and minimize the risk of ischemic stroke.

• It is important to undergo a course of treatment and periodically check your condition with a doctor if a chronic disease is present, such as diabetes mellitus, confirmed atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, or various disorders in the work of the heart and blood vessels.
• Experts strongly recommend giving up tobacco and alcohol.
• It is advisable to maintain an active, mobile lifestyle.
• You need to monitor your diet and avoid a sizable imbalance in fats and fast carbohydrates.

The above points are effective measures to prevent stroke and many other diseases; this has been proven in numerous studies.

But there are also risk factors that cannot be influenced. Among them are old age, over 60 years old, and heredity. If your closest relatives have suffered an embolic stroke, or they have serious vascular dysfunctions, then you are also at risk.

Embolic stroke symptoms

Cerebral infarction is rarely asymptomatic. You may have already come across actively disseminated reminders for the timely recognition of a stroke. It is essential to call an ambulance and provide the patient with medical care as early as possible; the sooner help is provided, the less brain damage.

The main symptoms of embolic strokes are:

• Dizziness.
• Loss of orientation in space.
• Vomiting.
• Convulsions.
• Impaired coordination, speech, vision, writing, reading, and swallowing.
• The inability to move individual limbs or perform simple manipulations such as raising two hands simultaneously, brushing your teeth, or flipping through the pages of a book.

The symptoms are extremely varied. They depend primarily on which part of the brain was deprived of blood supply, then what function for which this area is responsible will be disrupted.

At the same time, not all the symptoms may appear; you may notice one or more, which is a sufficient reason to call an ambulance immediately.

Diagnostics

Diagnostics of embolic strokes are quite complex, as a doctor will need a lot of data to identify the cause and assess the brain damage, and therefore the consequences of a stroke.

To visualize the state of the cerebral vessels, CT or MRI can be used, depending on the situation. A sufficiently informative study on the state of blood flow will be angiography, X-ray examination using a contrast agent injected into the vessels.

The following tests are used to assess the risk of stroke.

• General blood analysis. Allows you to determine the number of erythrocytes, platelets, leukocytes, and hemoglobin content in erythrocytes. Assessment of these indicators is crucial to identify possible causes of stroke. A decrease in the number of red blood cells and hemoglobin interferes with oxygen delivery to contribute to bleeding.
• Erythrocyte sedimentation rate. An increase in ESR may indicate inflammatory processes in the body, including inflammatory changes in the vascular wall, which can play a role in the occurrence of stroke.
• General urine analysis with microscopy. Allows you to characterize the various properties of urine to identify inflammatory changes in the organs of the urinary system. Glucose can appear in the urine with diabetes mellitus, and one of the reasons for the increase in protein levels is hypertension. These diseases are risk factors for stroke.
• Blood glucose. Glucose is the main type of carbohydrate used as an energy source in the body. Its concentration is increased often in diabetes mellitus.
• Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. They deliver cholesterol to the organs and tissues of the body. An increase in their number contributes to the development of atherosclerosis.
• Coagulogram analysis of the blood coagulation system. An increase in indicators indicates hypercoagulation, that is, a decrease in the blood’s ability to coagulate; this indicates an increased risk of thrombus formation. Considering the coagulogram is essential for the prevention of stroke and for assessing the effectiveness of anticoagulant administration.

Embolic stroke treatment

The primary task in stroke is to save the patient and prevent the expansion of brain damage. In the first hours after a stroke, drug treatment is effective. Further, after a detailed diagnosis and visualization of the affected vessel area, surgical methods remove the thrombus or plaque that caused the stroke.

Treatment can be roughly divided into three stages:

• Ensuring the necessary functioning of the body and preventing the expansion of the area of ​​brain damage in the phase of acute stroke.
• Eliminating the cause and minimizing the consequences of a stroke in the recovery phase.
• Prevention of recurrent stroke.

No specialist can foresee in advance what exact consequences will be found in the body after a stroke. Indeed, the brain contains areas responsible for almost all vital processes. The recovery process after an embolic stroke takes from several months to a year or more. Therefore, the main goal that specialists set themselves is to take measures to minimize the negative consequences of a stroke. Thus, it is essential to comprehensively manage the patient not by one attending physician but by a team of specialists.

Rehabilitation of a patient after embolic stroke takes place in three stages:

• Stage of work with a bedridden patient. Maintaining the work of vital body functions.
• Early rehabilitation stage. Passive gymnastics massage to restore basic functions until the patient gets out of bed.
• Stage of late rehabilitation. Gradual restoration of motor, mental, and other body functions affected by a stroke.

At all stages of the program, a highly regarded principle is having an individual approach to each patient.

Stroke remains an urgent topic for research: new rehabilitation methods, effective drugs, and treatment regimens appear regularly. Therefore, specialists on a compulsory basis must undergo refresher courses.