11-15-05

Stroke

Stroke is usually associated with people in their senior years, but stroke often strikes younger people, too.

Stroke is the leading cause of disability and the third leading cause of death in the United States. Dr. Joni Clark, associate professor of neurology at SIU School of Medicine in Springfield, says stroke is caused by a lack of blood flow to the brain, usually due to a blood clot.

SOUND BITE: " . . . stroke is definitely more common in the elderly population. Age is a risk factor for stroke, but young people do have strokes and young people have risk factors for stroke and then there are some other unusual causes that would make stroke more likely in a young person."

The most common symptoms of stroke are weakness or numbness on one side of the body, difficulty speaking or slurred speech. There can be problems with vision such as loss of vision in one eye, problems with walking or a severe headache. She explains some of the treatments for stroke.

SOUND BITE: " . . . we have a drug called TPA which is a clot buster. That drug has to be given upon three hours of symptom onset. Not everybody will be a candidate for this drug, but everybody should be screened and that’s one of the most important reasons why people need to get to the emergency room as soon as possible. Other than that there are treatments that we do to prevent another stroke and some of those are surgical . . ."

Dr. Clark encourages people to learn the symptoms so they can recognize it in themselves or if they see someone else having a stroke, they can get them to the emergency room as quickly as possible.