Deluxe Health Screening Package

What is stroke?

It is a cerebrovascular disease with body disorder and brain damage from the burst or blockage of blood vessel in brain. It is usually called as ‘palsy’, and can cause hemiplegia, speech disorder, or even human vegetable. If the proper period for treatment is lost, critical aftereffect will be occurred. Therefore, precise knowledge of the cause for risk factor of stroke should be needed to prevent any further damage.

Stroke is the most cases in death for Korean adult with more than 40s. For the past one year, 74 people per 100 thousand populations were dead from stroke.

Treatment of stroke

• Medication
  • For cerebral infarction, tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) can be administered if the patient arrives within 5 hours. However, if time is elapsed, treatment of cerebral edema and complication prevention will be conducted to minimize dead brain cell.
• Preventive treatment

  • To prevent the reoccurrence of stroke, elimination of cause and TPA for infarction will be used.

    Arteriosclerosis might cause stroke. Therefore, stricture area will be surgically removed or vasomotion via balloon will be applied to prevent stroke.

Diagnosis of stroke

• MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging)
  • Brain MRI can diagnose hemorrhage, infarction, brain tumor, pituitary tumor, etc.
• MRA (Magnetic Resonance Angiography)
  • MRA can determine arteriosclerosis, and is required to determine future treatment plan. Selection of proper drug and decision on treatment methods, such as vasomotion or intima removal, can be made according to this examination.

Types of stroke

• Cerebral hemorrhage: burst blood vessel
• Cerebral infarction: stricture in blood vessel
• Transient ischemic attack: it is major warning signal for stroke due to reflowing and blocking of cerebrovascular or thrombus.

Causes of stroke

• Hypertension: 60~70% of stroke is caused by hypertension
• Heart disease: 20% of stroke is caused by heart disease
• Diabetes: cause arteriosclerosis and internal infarction
• Habits causing stroke: smoking, heavy drinking, lacking exercise, obesity, excess stress

Symptoms of stroke

Brain has different functions by left and right brain. Therefore, which area is affected by stroke will show different symptoms.

• Usual symptom
  • hemiplegia, vision disorder, hemianesthesia, diplopia
  • Speech disorder, walking disorder, dizziness, seizure
  • Acute headache, vomiting, difficulty in deglutition
• Brain disorder with similar symptom
• Brain cancer, Parkinson's disease, encephalitis, parasite in brain, etc

Habit and prevention of stroke

• Smoking and drinking should be declined.

  Smoking is the most important preventive measure by patient.

  Smoking might cause infarction not only heart failure, lung cancer, esophageal cancer, etc.

• Maintenance of proper weight and regular exercise should be implemented.
• Stroke is not only occurred for the aged person. It might be occurred to 30~40s from wrong habit and adult diseases like hypertension, heart failure, diabetes, etc. Prevention for stroke should be emphasized not only for aged person but also younger person.
• Proper treatment for cause and maintenance of healthy living habit can prevent stroke.