TIA 係咩呀?

我唔知咩叫 TIA， 但係因為我媽媽有中風先兆，又有個朋友的醫生朋友佢睇完呀媽個 REPORT 和 CT SCAN，就話應該係 TIA。 咁TIA 係咩呢? 原來係"中風先兆" 一定要好小心 TAKE CARE 先得。

係網路上找到到的資料好有用。

What is TIA?

TIA represents temporary stroke warning symptoms. A stroke can be impairment of sensation, level of consciousness, balance, or voluntary motion caused by a rupture or obstruction of an artery in the brain. In short: a stroke is a brain attack. TIA is not a full-blown stroke, but mimics one.

Dr. John Y. Choi, former assistant professor of neurology and director of Neurorecovery at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston compares TIA to “angina of the brain.” He explains, “Angina involves chest pains without an immediate heart attack that, as yet, causes no permanent damage. TIA similarly has the earmarks of a stroke without the permanent damage a stroke causes.”

The good news: TIA symptoms go away. The bad news: TIA patients are the highest risk group for having a stroke. TIA symptoms typically last for only a few minutes to 24 hours at most, although this old-fashioned definition is likely to be revised to reduce TIA duration to minutes or very few hours.

Symptoms

TIA can present with any of a number of symptoms. Among them:

• Loss of vision
• Double vision
• Sudden confusion
• Trouble speaking or making others understand your speech
• Slurred speech
• Muscle weakness, usually isolated, and confined to one side of the body
• Facial weakness
• Trouble with coordination
• Balance difficulty
• Sudden numbness in arm, leg or face, also usually on one side of body only
• Vertigo
• A sudden severe headache

Who Will Have a TIA?

Prime candidates for TIA may be persons who:

• Have elevated blood pressure
• Unchecked high cholesterol
• Are obese
• Have diabetes (blood sugar) management problems
• Drink alcohol to excess
• Smoke
• Suffer from atrial fibrillation (irregular heart beat starting in the atrium chamber)
• Lack of exercise
• Have a family history of some of these conditions
• New finding: a person who has had estrogen/progesterone therapy for over five years is at increased risk for stroke.

What to Do if You Suspect a TIA

“Don’t call a family member or your doctor. Call 911 immediately,” says Dr. Lise A. Labiche, a Cerebrovascular Disease Fellow at the UT Medical School and a member of STAT (Stroke Treatment Team). “The ambulance personnel will notify the hospital that you are on the way, emergency healthcare providers can start to work the instant you arrive.”

Don’t Reach for the Aspirin

Labiche cautions that you should not immediately take an aspirin. The stroke team may give you one later when it determines that your episode is a non-bleeding stroke. Most often, if symptoms last longer than one to two hours, a stroke has occurred rather than a TIA. Aspirin would only increase the bleeding if you are having a hemorrhagic or bleeding stroke. She adds, “There is no proof that taking aspirin immediately improves blood flow to the brain.”

What Happens in the ER?

Upon arrival to the ER, the stroke team orders a CT-scan to screen the brain tissue for any evidence of new or old strokes. The only FDA- approved treatment for non-bleeding strokes is TPA, which is effective when given within three hours of symptom onset.

After this factor is ruled out, the patients may be admitted to the hospital where they receive other imaging tests, possibly including magnetic resonance angiography (MRA), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Doppler and EKG.

The MRI looks at the brain tissue in more detail than the CAT scan. MRA checks blood vessels in the brain to make sure they are not severely narrowed or blocked. The EKG (electrocardiogram) is an electrical recording of the heart that investigates for heart disease. A Doppler test addresses the carotid artery to see if it is narrowing.

Now for the Bad News

A person having suffered a TIA is much more likely to have another TIA, a full-blown stroke, or heart attack. Choi says that one in 10 patients will suffer another TIA or stroke during the 90 days after the first TIA. Over a three-year period, such a patient will have a 25 percent risk of a stroke.

If any signs of TIA are suspected in someone who has previously been diagnosed with the disorder, they should go immediately to the emergency room, preferably in a hospital that has a stroke team. Choi cautions that if the carotid artery becomes blocked, then surgery may be indicated. “We do a study of the heart with ultrasound and telemetry since we know that, under certain conditions, the heart can cause strokes by clot formation.”

Source from "http://www.healthleader.uthouston.edu/archive/Stroke/2003/tia-0724.html"