FlyOnMelfisWall
March 23rd, 2004, 05:50 PM
uffalogal, I thought the same thing, especially since I'd just read a cover story in Newsweek on strokes and related maladies, including mini-strokes.
To be clear, the terms used in the show by the doctor were "infarct" and "mini strokes". I used the term TIA, because it is my lay understanding that "TIA" is the term used to describe a pattern of multiple, transient, small strokes in the brain, which the doctor talked about. There certainly is a lot of literature where the terms are used interchangeably.
I suppose there could be some distinction between mini-strokes and TIA based on the degree of true "transiegency", however, and perhaps based on the degree of permanent brain damage afterward. So don't hold Chase and company responsible for the "TIA" bit in that event since that was my extrapolation.
The symtoms for TIA/mini strokes, which you listed, are largely the same as for full-blown strokes, except the symptoms disappear relatively quickly because the deprivation of blood flow is only temporary. However some people can have them with no real symptoms at all, completely unaware that their brains have just had little infarcts.
I know someone who has been diagnosed with TIA, and during the acute phase of her attacks, she doesn't experience any of the numbness, weakness, or asymetric body changes that are among the most common symptoms. What she does experience is an aboslute confusion about where she is or why she's there; she often engages in involuntary motor movements (her hand drawing circles, for instance); she has severe short term memory loss and, after the attack subsides, cannot recall what happened during it; and she talks nonsensically with a bit of speech slurring.
So what I've learned from this personal experience leads me to think the symptoms in individual cases can be quite diverse and more inclusive than the bullet point symptoms that mark the condition in the majority of sufferers.
The best answer, perhaps, is what I just found in a Google search on the condition, namely that there is a form of dementia CAUSED by TIAs:
"After Alzheimer's disease, the nation's second leading cause of progressive mental deterioration is multi-infarct dementia. "Infarct" means tissue death, in this case, tissue in the brain. Brain tissues dies because the affected individual suffers a series of mini-strokes known as "transient ischemic attacks" (TIAs). Basically, multi-infarct dementia results from cumulative cerebral damage caused by little strokes that may go unnoticed."
The full article is here:
www.zarcrom.com/users/alz.../mid3.html (http://www.zarcrom.com/users/alzheimers/odem/mid3.html)
This is very consistent with the doctor having remarked that Junior's brain exhibited some pretty substantial damage from a prior ministroke or series of strokes, something I presume they would have diagnosed from an MRI. He also asked if Tony had noticed a gradual deterioration of Junior's condition mentally over the last 6-12 months, which suggests to me the doctor was talking about an accumulation of permanent brain damage manifesting quite separate and apart from symptoms which present during a TIA or mini stroke itself. However, the doctor never used the terms dementia or MID (multi infarct dementia) specifically.
</p>Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub132.ezboard.com/bsopranolandforum.showUserPublicProfile?gid=flyonm elfiswall>FlyOnMelfisWall</A> at: 3/23/04 5:51 pm