Silent stroke: not listened to rather than silent.
Stroke
; 43(11): 3102-4, 2012 Nov.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-22949470
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:
The prevalence of silent brain infarcts varies from 8% to 28% in the general elderly population. Silent brain infarcts are associated with increased risk of subsequent stroke and cognitive dysfunction. By definition, silent strokes lack clinically overt stroke-like symptoms and fail to come to clinical attention; however, impaired recall of symptoms may be a potential confounder. Our aim is to report a series of patients with incidentally detected acute and subacute strokes and examine whether they were truly asymptomatic.METHODS:
Subjects included in this study were drawn from ongoing dementia research studies at the Memory Ageing and Cognition Center, in which all participants underwent a cranial MRI. Incidental hyperintense lesions on diffusion-weighted imaging with corresponding apparent diffusion coefficient defects indicative of acute/subacute silent stroke were identified. Clinical data for individuals with incidental hyperintense lesions on diffusion-weighted imaging were collated.RESULTS:
Six of 649 subjects had incidental hyperintense lesions on diffusion-weighted imaging; on retrospective questioning, 3 recalled symptoms temporally correlated with MRI lesions, which had been reported to but ignored by family members. Two subjects had focal neurological signs. A majority of the subjects with incidental hyperintense lesions on diffusion-weighted imaging had significant cognitive impairment.CONCLUSIONS:
A significant number of strokes may be "silent" due to lack of awareness of stroke-like symptoms in the elderly and their families. Enhanced stroke prevention education strategies are needed for the elderly population and, in particular, for their families.
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Encéfalo
/
Transtornos Cognitivos
/
Acidente Vascular Cerebral
Tipo de estudo:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Aged
/
Aged80
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2012
Tipo de documento:
Article