Stroke - Symptoms

Symptoms

If you have symptoms of a stroke, seek emergency medical care. General symptoms of a stroke include sudden onset of:

• Numbness, weakness, or paralysis of the face, arm, or leg, typically on one side of the body.
• Trouble seeing in one or both eyes, such as dimness, blurring, double vision, or loss of vision.
• Confusion, trouble understanding.
• Slurred or garbled speech.
• Trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination.
• Severe headache.

Symptoms vary depending on whether the stroke is caused by a clot or bleeding. The location of the blood clot or bleeding and the extent of brain damage can also affect symptoms.

• Symptoms of an ischemic stroke (caused by a clot blocking a blood vessel) usually occur in the side of the body opposite from the side of the brain where the clot occurred. For example, a stroke in the right side of the brain affects the left side of the body.
• Symptoms of a hemorrhagic stroke (caused by bleeding in the brain) can be similar to those of an ischemic stroke but may be distinguished by symptoms relating to higher pressure in the brain, including severe headache, nausea and vomiting, neck stiffness, dizziness, seizures, irritability, confusion, and possibly unconsciousness.

Symptoms of a stroke may progress over minutes, hours, or days, often in a stepwise fashion. For example, mild weakness may progress to an inability to move the arm and leg on one side of the body.

• If a stroke is caused by a large blood clot (ischemic stroke) or bleeding (hemorrhagic stroke), symptoms occur suddenly, within seconds.
• When an artery that is narrowed by atherosclerosis becomes blocked, stroke symptoms usually develop gradually over minutes to hours, or (in rare cases) days.
• If several smaller strokes occur over time, the person may have a more gradual change in walking, balance, thinking, or behavior (multi-infarct dementia).

It is not always easy for people to recognize symptoms of a small stroke. They may mistakenly think the symptoms can be attributed to aging, or the symptoms may be confused with those of other conditions that cause similar symptoms.