Admitted to hospital for demonstrating “stroke symptoms “. The protagonist of the story was Hailey Bieber who a few days ago told on Instagram that she fell ill while having breakfast with her husband Justin Bieber and was taken to the hospital where doctors found a blood clot to the brain. Fright aside, the model made it clear that everything was resolved in a short time.
What hit Hailey Bieber was probably what is referred to as a transient ischemic attack.
What is it about? We talked about it with the Professor Alberto AlbaneseHumanitas Neurology Manager and Humanitas University Professor.
Professor, is there clinically a condition for which the same symptoms as a stroke occur but in a transient way, which resolve spontaneously?
“Yes, it is thetransient ischemic attack. In fact it is a real ischemic stroke, a condition that occurs when there is a loss of blood supply to one area of the brain. The passage of blood and oxygen can be impeded by a clotthat is, a small solid clot of blood, but also from one spasm, a narrowing of blood vessels. When oxygen does not reach the nerve cells, even for a very short time, they go into energy crisis and stop working ».
What are the symptoms of a transient ischemic attack?
«I sintomi they depend on which area of the brain is affected from lack of oxygen. They can be, for example, difficulty speaking and understanding, sudden weakness, paralysis of the face or limbs, dizziness. Stroke-like symptoms but temporary: when ischemia resolves within a short timeusually minutes, the symptoms may appear and then disappear immediately afterwards ».
Can transient ischemic attack strike at all ages?
“Yes, if the conditions are right, it can occur at any age. It can in fact be determined by multiple causes, both genetic and environmental ».
What are the main risk factors for transient ischemic attack?
“We distinguish between modifiable and non-modifiable factors. Those that cannot be modified, that is, on which we cannot intervene, are the genetic predispositionsome people are indeed carriers of genetic variants that increase the risk of stroke, but also age, race and sex, men have a higher risk of stroke than women. Among the modifiable factors, on which on the contrary it is possible to act, there are instead obesity, smoking and high blood pressure».
What are the consequences of a transient ischemic attack?
“It depends on the timing, that is how long the nerve cells are left without oxygen. If we think of a spasm during which the artery closed for a moment and then immediately reopened, residual symptoms may not be there. A person can also not realizing that you have had a transient ischemic attack: when the lack of oxygen has affected a silent area of the brain there are in fact no manifest symptoms ».
On the other hand, when clinical tests show that it was a transient ischemic attack, what should be done?
«This condition should not be neglected because it represents a alarm bell. When a person has experienced a transient ischemic attack, a clinical study with the aim of preventing the possibility that in the future the patient may develop other strokes, perhaps not transitory ones “.
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