Mild stroke (transient ischemic attack): causes, symptoms & drugs

Definition of a mild stroke

Transient ischemic attack (TIA) is the appearance of an attack in the form of a stroke symptom that occurs suddenly but is temporary. You may be more familiar with the designation of a light stroke.

This condition usually lasts for several minutes before finally subsiding. Even so, minor strokes do not cause permanent damage to the brain. It's just that, you need to be more careful if you have experienced a TIA.

The reason is, a light stroke which can also be called a mini stroke is a warning that your health condition has started to be more considered. If this warning is taken as a wind and is ignored, you may have a stroke at a later date.

Generally, neither ischemic stroke nor hemorrhagic stroke does not necessarily affect people who have just had a mild stroke. These conditions may only appear one year after you experience a TIA.

Therefore, if you can respond to this "warning" and immediately overcome it with medication and lifestyle changes, you may not have a stroke in the future.

How common are minor strokes?

This disease generally attacks people over 60 years of age. People of Asian, African and Caribbean descent are at a higher risk of having a mild stroke. This is partly because this group is more likely to experience a lack of blood and oxygen supply to the brain.

Signs & symptoms of a mild stroke

In general, mild strokes last for a few minutes. The signs and symptoms of a minor stroke will subside and then disappear within one hour after the stroke occurs.

However, it is not uncommon for patients to wait 24 hours for the symptoms of a mild stroke to completely disappear. The symptoms of this condition are not much different from the symptoms that may appear when you have an ischemic stroke or hemorrhagic stroke, for example:

• Muscle weakness or numbness to paralysis, especially of the face, hands or feet.
• Speech disorder as well as difficulty understanding other people's words.
• Blindness in one or both eyes.
• Loss of balance or vertigo.
• Difficulty swallowing

When to see a doctor?

Contact your doctor immediately if you experience signs and symptoms of a mini stroke. Stroke treatment carried out on time will help prevent further strokes.

Causes of minor strokes

The cause of a mild stroke is actually not much different from the causes of ischemic stroke. Both are caused by blockages that occur in blood vessels.

It's just that, in a mild stroke, the blockage is still relatively mild and does not cause permanent damage to the brain. The main cause of TIA is often cholesterol buildup in the arteries that supply oxygen and nutrients to the brain.

This plaque buildup can reduce blood flow to the arteries, and can potentially lead to blood clots. Blood clots can travel to the blood vessels in the brain from other areas of the body.

Usually, this clot travels from the blood vessels in the heart. Therefore, not a few people who have heart disease also experience a stroke.

Risk factors for mild stroke

There are many factors that can increase your chances of having a minor stroke. Basically, the risk you have is not much different from the risk of having an ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke.

These risk factors fall into several groups:

Unmanageable risk factors

Here are some of the risks you can't control:

1. Family medical history

Your potential for having a mild stroke will be higher if a family member has had a TIA or other type of stroke.

2. Increasing age

Increasing age also increases your risk of developing this condition. Generally, you will start to have the risk of a mild stroke when you are 55 years and over.

3. Male gender

Men have a greater potential for stroke. Even so, with age, the risk of mild stroke for women is just as great.

4. Have had a previous minor stroke

Having had a minor stroke makes you more susceptible to this condition again at a later date.

5. Sickle cell disease

One of the complications of sickle cell anemia is stroke. Unfortunately, this disease is usually a condition that is hereditary, so you can experience this condition from birth.

Sickle cell disease causes blood cells to "carry" less oxygen and can potentially get trapped in artery walls, blocking or blocking blood flow that should go to the brain.

However, if you are able to treat sickle cell disease, you may also reduce your risk of a minor stroke.

Controllable risk factors

Meanwhile, there are also risk factors that you can control. Usually, health conditions and lifestyle choices can be improved so that the risk of stroke is well controlled.

1. Blood pressure

When your blood pressure rises and exceeds the 140/90 mmHg mark, your risk of having a minor stroke increases too. However, unfortunately high blood pressure often does not show certain symptoms.

This means that you must regularly check your blood pressure to find out the number on blood pressure and control it to keep it at a normal number.

2. Cholesterol levels

High cholesterol levels are high, the higher your risk of experiencing various types of strokes, including minor strokes. For that, improve your diet by reducing foods that contain high cholesterol and fat.

If you can't lower your cholesterol levels just by adopting a healthy diet, get checked out by your doctor. Usually, your doctor will prescribe cholesterol-lowering drugs such as statins to help you.

3. Heart disease

Various heart diseases such as heart failure, heart infections, and arrhythmias can increase your risk of having a stroke.

4. Diabetes

Diabetes can increase the severity of atherosclerosis, or narrowing of the blood vessels due to plaque buildup. Not only that, the speed of disease progression has also increased. Therefore, diabetics have a high risk of having a stroke.

5. Being overweight

Obesity or being overweight, especially excess fat in the abdominal area, can increase the risk of stroke, both in women and in men.

In addition to the risk factors above, a lifestyle that can increase the risk of stroke includes:

1. Smoking habits

Smoking can increase your risk of having a minor stroke and many other types of stroke. The reason is, this habit increases the risk of blood clot formation, increases blood pressure, and contributes to increased plaque buildup in blood vessels.

2. Lazing

Who says being lazy doesn't have a bad effect on health? Too long standing still and not moving the body actively can increase the risk of experiencing a variety of serious diseases, including minor strokes.

3. Drink alcohol

The habit of consuming alcohol is very dangerous for the health of the body. It is better to avoid consuming this drink and replace it with healthier drinks, for example mineral water.

Medication & treatment of minor strokes

There are several types of drugs that you can use to treat minor strokes, such as the following:

Antiplatelet

Antiplatelets are a type of medicine used to prevent blood clots, also known as blood thinners. This stroke medication can block blood clots that cause clots to form that can block blood flow to the brain.

One of the most commonly used antiplatelet drugs for mild stroke is aspirin.

Aspirin

Apart from reducing pain, relieving fever due to inflammation, aspirin also has other uses. Aspirin can inhibit blood clotting so that it can prevent blood clots from forming.

Apart from aspirin, doctors will usually give you another antiplatelet drug, namely clopidogrel. In a study conducted by the University of Oxford, a combination of aspirin and copridogrel use for 3 months was shown to be more effective in preventing further strokes.

Anticoagulants

Anticoagulants are also blood-thinning drugs used to prevent blood clots in stroke sufferers who experience hypercoagulation or a tendency to form blood clots or thrombus in blood vessels.

In addition, the formation of blood clots can also be caused by heart rhythm disturbances. This stroke medication is not given to patients who have received other blood-thinning medications, such as anti-platelets.

However, the use of anticoagulant drugs to treat ischemic stroke is still being debated. The reason is, anticoagulants are more intended to prevent stroke than as a restoring effect.

Some types of anticoagulant drugs commonly used in the treatment of ischemic stroke are:

Warfarin

Warfarin is a stroke medication in pill form that is usually used for a long time, but takes a few days to take effect.

To determine the correct dose of warfarin, every ischemic stroke sufferer needs to have a blood test. Inaccurate doses can increase the risk of excessive bleeding in the brain arteries which can lead to hemorrhagic stroke..

Heparin

Unlike other blood thinners, the way heparin works is not to destroy blood. Heparin helps the anti-clotting proteins in the body work more optimally, thereby promoting blood flow.

The side effects of this medication include bleeding, sudden numbness, irritation, discoloration of the skin, fever, chills, difficulty breathing.

Thrombolytic drugs

In some cases of a mild stroke, thrombolytic drugs can be used to treat an ongoing stroke. At that time, the symptoms of a mild stroke had appeared and had not improved in some time.

The type of drug for thrombolytic stroke is recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rTPA) which is given by injection into an infusion connected to a blood vessel.

This drug works by dissolving blood clots or clots that block blood flow to the brain.

Hypertension drugs

Hypertension medication is usually given if the result of the diagnosis is known that one of the risk factors causing a mild stroke is hypertension or high blood pressure.

One hypertension medication that is often given with other stroke medications is Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme (ACE) Inhibitors.

Other treatments for minor strokes

In some cases of minor strokes, there are conditions in which mild stroke medications are no longer effective in preventing the actual stroke.

For example, the condition of the arteries that are getting narrower so that it can trigger blockages in the near future. For that, the doctor will recommend that you undergo a surgical procedure.

Some types of surgery are performed to improve blood flow to the brain, including:

Carotid Endarterectomy

Carotid endarterectomy is a surgical procedure performed to remove fat deposits that cause narrowing of the carotid arteries. The carotid artery is an artery located in the neck that extends to the brain.

This procedure has a high success rate, but may not necessarily prevent permanent blockage.

Angioplasty

The narrowed carotid arteries can also be widened with an angioplasty procedure. This procedure is performed by attaching a catheter to the blood vessel in the groin area that carries a stenting device, such as a balloon, to the carotid artery.

After arriving at the carotid artery, the stenting device is then opened so that it expands the part of the blocked artery.