Precursors to cerebral infarction

Written by Chen Yu Fei
Neurosurgery
Updated on August 31, 2024
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For patients with cerebral infarction, before the onset of the illness, they often lack specific prodromal symptoms. Some patients may experience mild headaches, dizziness, nausea, and a clear feeling of discomfort. Additionally, some patients might experience numbness in the legs and involuntary twitching of facial muscles before the onset. Subsequently, some patients may also start to have drooping of the corner of the mouth to one side, drooling, slurred speech, and distinct articulation disorders. When these clinical presentations occur, it is necessary to be vigilant and seek timely medical attention at a local hospital. A cranial CT or MRI should be performed to confirm the diagnosis.

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The difference between lacunar infarction and cerebral infarction

Lacunar stroke is a type of cerebral infarction and is considered the mildest form within strokes. Generally, the area affected by a lacunar infarction is very small, so if it is a single incident or there are not many lacunar strokes, it usually does not cause any symptoms. Many middle-aged and elderly people over the age of fifty or sixty who undergo routine CT scans during physical examinations exhibit signs of lacunar stroke on their CT images, yet most of them do not present any clinical symptoms. Therefore, lacunar stroke may only affect brain function and result in symptoms such as speech difficulties, slow reactions, weakened muscle strength in the limbs, or lack of coordination when there are numerous occurrences. Cerebral infarction can include strokes that affect larger areas of the brain, which are much more severe than lacunar strokes. These larger strokes are sufficient to cause clinical symptoms, which may include hemiplegia, drooping of the corner of the mouth and drooling, abnormal limb movements, and even fatal events in cases of extensive cerebral infarction. Thus, lacunar stroke, being a type of cerebral infarction, represents the mildest form of stroke.

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Methods of Cerebral Infarction

There are many methods for treating cerebral infarction, but it is essential to make judgments based on the situation, as each patient's condition is different and requires different treatment approaches. For patients with acute cerebral infarction, treatments such as emergency thrombolysis or thrombectomy can be undertaken. For chronic cerebral infarction, initially, medical treatment is applied, including managing blood pressure, lowering blood lipids, stabilizing blood sugar levels, quitting smoking and alcohol, etc. Subsequently, this includes the oral administration of antiplatelet aggregation medications, which can effectively reduce the recurrence of cerebral infarction. Finally, corresponding surgical treatments are considered, including endarterectomy, superficial temporal artery to middle cerebral artery anastomosis, and appropriate stent implantation surgeries, depending on the specific characteristics. (Specific medications should be administered under the guidance of a physician.)

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Can someone who has had a cerebral infarction eat eggs?

Patients with cerebral infarction can eat eggs. In clinical practice, many people believe that eggs, especially egg yolks, contain very high cholesterol, which can easily lead to hyperlipidemia. However, this does not specifically cause hyperlipidemia. Eating one egg a day generally does not have a severe impact on the human body. After all, the human body is constantly active and consumes nutrients. Eating an egg will not particularly affect the body but will supplement many proteins and other essential substances. Therefore, it is best to eat eggs. However, if there are other symptoms present, such as difficulty swallowing, coughing while eating, or a comatose state, then eggs should not be consumed. It is crucial to make judgments based on the situation.

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Can the blood vessels in a cerebral infarction be unblocked?

Whether the blood vessels in a cerebral infarction can be reopened is closely related to time. If it is within the hyperacute phase, which means within six hours from the onset of clinical symptoms to hospital admission, the majority of cases can undergo thrombolysis intravenously, or arterial thrombectomy to reopen the blood vessels. However, if the time exceeds this window, reopening is no longer feasible, and forced reopening at this stage can easily lead to the detachment of distal thrombi or cause reperfusion injury, which is more detrimental to the patient's condition. Therefore, it is impossible to reopen the blood vessels during the chronic phase or non-hyperacute phase. If treatment of this vascular occlusion is desired, vascular anastomosis can be considered, though the specific type of anastomosis surgery depends on the patient's specific condition at the time. Thus, the possibility of reopening a blood vessel in a cerebral infarction certainly depends on timing.

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Is a cerebral infarction serious?

Stroke is a very serious disease; its essence lies in the ischemic necrosis of nerve cells. A characteristic of nerve cells is that once they undergo ischemic necrosis, they cannot regenerate. Along with cardiac muscle cells, they are the only cells in the human body that cannot regenerate once they have died. Therefore, for the part of the tissue where nerve cells have already died, such as in cases of cerebral thrombosis or stroke where the tissue has already been affected, it is impossible to completely restore it. If the affected area is relatively small, some compensation might be possible. However, if the affected area is relatively large, this will lead to a significant amount of ischemic necrosis in the neural tissue, which can cause total dysfunction of various tissue structures in the body, and in more severe cases, can lead to coma and eventually the death of the patient. Therefore, it is imperative to take this seriously in clinical practice.