Cerebral Infarction Flashcards
What is a cerebral infarction?
a type of ischemic stroke resulting from a blockage in the blood vessels supplying blood to the brain
What are the structural abnormalities?
- disease of the wall of the arteries going to or within the brain (e.g. atherosclerosis caused by cholesterol and inflammatory cells)
- dilated atria of the heart (with atrial fibrilation) that allows blood clots to form
What are the physiological abnormalities?
- Ischemia (reduced blood supply) of brain tissue
- Necrosis (death) of brain tissue-raised intra-cranial pressure due to oedema
What causes cerebral infarction?
-Atrial fibrillation
-smoking
-high bp
-high cholesterol
-diabetes
TIA’s (transient ischaemic attack)
What is a TIA?
A reversible “mini-stroke” that does no obvious lasting damage, it is often caused by very small blood clots that temporarily block an artery
What are the signs ans symptoms?
-Localised abnormalities of the nervous system which may include:
-weakness of the arm/leg
-slurring speech (dysarthria)
-drooping of a corner of the mouth
- difficulty swallwoing (dysphagia)
-inability to speak the right words
-inability to understand
-irregular pulse
high bp
-possible bruit over carotid artery
What is a bruit?
noise of turbulent blood flow caused by atherosclerosis with narrowing
What are the abnormal test results?
- signs of ischaemia swelling and infarction on an MRI or brain CT
- narrowing of carotid artery on ultrasound
- evidence of a blood clot on echo cardiogram
What is the medical/surgical intervention?
-Thrombolytic drugs which dissolve the blood clot from within the artery and restores blood flow
What is the primary and secondary prevention?
- treating the AF with warafrin
- treating the carotid athersclerosis with anti-platelet drugs (e.g. asprin)
- management of high BP
