View all slides | Contents of this slide

Lecture Notes

Stroke is another form of cardiovascular disease, and similar to a heart attack in that the tissue is not getting enough blood or O2 that it needs, so it occurs when the oxygen-rich blood flow to the brain fails. So instead of like a heart attack—the blood gets cut off to the heart—in this case, in a stroke, the blood is getting cut off to the brain. And there are two different types of strokes that we talk about. The first is ischemic, and that's caused by a blockage of blood flow, so about 80% of all cases are ischemic, and the second is a hemorrhagic, caused by bleeding, so oftentimes there can be a hole in the artery where there's some seeping of blood, and that occurs in about 20% of all stroke cases, so less frequently but still important to know about.