Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast.

My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be talking to you about stroke.

And you can find written notes on this topic at zero tofinals.com slash stroke

or in the neurology section of the second edition of the zero to finals medicine book.

And you can find flashcards and questions to train your knowledge on this content

and help you remember it for longer at members.0.0.com.

So let's get straight into it.

Stroke is also called cerebrovascular accident or CVA.

Cerebrovascular accidents are either eschemia or infarction of the brain tissue secondary to a

disrupted blood supply, and this is called an ischemic stroke and accounts for about 80 to 90% of strokes,

or intracranial hemorrhage with bleeding in or around the brain,

and this is called a hemorrhagic stroke and accounts for 10 to 20% of strokes.

Ischemia refers to an inadequate blood supply.

Infarction refers to tissue death due to ischemia.

The blood supply to the brain may be disrupted by a thrombus or an embolus, essentially a blood clot,

atherosclerosis, shock with reduced perfusion to the tissues,

or vasculitis. Transient ischemic attack or TIA involves temporary neurological dysfunction

lasting less than 24 hours caused by ischemia but without infarction.

So an inadequate blood supply without tissue death.

With the TIA, the symptoms have a rapid onset and often they completely resolve before the patient

is seen by the emergency room or by their GP.

TIAs may precede a stroke.

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