[World Stroke Day 10.29] TIA, a "mini-stroke" that comes and goes quickly

Today is the 17th World Stroke Day, with the theme of "Recognize stroke symptoms and seize precious time" and the slogan of "Race against time to save lives". Today, I will introduce a disease closely related to stroke, which is called "mini-stroke" by many people - transient ischemic attack (TIA).

TIA, the full name of transient ischemic attack, is a sudden and transient lack of blood supply to the cerebral blood vessels, causing focal ischemia and hypoxia in the brain. At this time, you may experience transient limb weakness, slurred speech and other neurological dysfunctions. Although its manifestations are very similar to cerebral apoplexy (commonly known as "stroke"), it is very short-lived, generally lasting 10 to 20 minutes, usually relieved within 1 hour, and no longer than 24 hours. It can completely return to normal without leaving any neurological deficit symptoms . Because of this, TIA is easily ignored by patients.

TIA is caused by the detachment of microemboli in the systemic circulation. Whether it is the detachment of plaques from arteriosclerosis, or mural thrombi in the heart, or other right-to-left shunts, such as atrial septal defect, right-to-left shunts, or the detachment of venous thrombi from the lower limbs, plaques and small emboli appear, causing blockage of cerebral blood vessels. Compared with stroke, TIA has a shorter onset time , and the blockage in the blood vessels is usually washed away by the blood flow within minutes and dissolved by chemicals in the body. The ischemia and hypoxia of brain tissue are not obvious and can be fully recovered , but it shows that your blood vessels have been in disrepair for a long time and will be blocked again soon . If blocked for a long time, it will cause local ischemia and necrosis of the brain and progress to ischemic stroke.

3 steps to teach you how to quickly identify TIA

“1” means: seeing an asymmetrical face.

"2" represents: whether both arms are unilaterally weak.

"0" means: whether the listening speech is clear.

If you experience any of the above symptoms, please call 120 as soon as possible!

When the disease is treated, most patients have recovered without special treatment, but this does not mean that we can ignore this situation. We still need to call 120 in time and take medicine under the guidance of a doctor, so as to better prevent recurrence.

Some risk factors cannot be intervened, such as age and gender. For risk factors that can be intervened, we give the following suggestions:

01 Control blood pressure

Control the systolic blood pressure of patients with hypertension to <140mmHg and the diastolic blood pressure to <90mmHg, but the blood pressure of the elderly does not need to be lowered too much.

02 Disease Prevention

Actively treat heart diseases such as coronary heart disease, congestive heart failure, valvular heart disease, atrial fibrillation, etc.

03 Control blood lipids

To control hyperlipidemia, statins can be used to lower blood lipids when necessary.

04 Adjust your daily routine

Quit smoking, reduce drinking, actively treat diabetes, recommend appropriate physical labor and exercise, and take medication as prescribed by your doctor.

Author: Zhu Jiaye

Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine

Editor: Wu Qikai

Illustration: Li Chuan

The popular science content of this platform has been funded by the China Association for Science and Technology's Science Popularization Department's 2022 National Science Literacy Action Project "National Society Science Popularization Capacity Improvement Project-Rehabilitation Science Popularization Service Capacity Improvement Action Plan"