What are Different Types of Stroke?

A stroke happens when the flow of blood to the brain gets interrupted. With no blood, the brain cells begin to die. This can lead to serious symptoms, disability and also death. Stroke is the second most common cause of death after coronary artery diseases globally. It is also the most prevalent cause of chronic adult disability. However, while stroke threatens humankind all across the globe, developing countries like India account for more than four-fifths of all strokes. The stroke incidence rate in India is much higher than in other developing countries with approximately 1.8 million Indians out of a population of 1.2 billion suffering from stroke every year. The statistics make it important for us to know about the types of strokes and the reasons causing the same.

Types of Strokes:

There are 3 major kinds of stroke: TIA or Transient Ischemic Attack, Ischemic stroke and Hemorrhagic. As per estimates, 87% strokes are the ischemic strokes.

• Transient Ischemic Attack or TIA

It is a warning or a ministroke. A clot which briefly blocks the flow of blood to our brain leads to TIA. Blood clot & TIA signs prevail for a short span of time.

• Ischemic Stroke

An ischemic stroke takes place when a blood clot prevents blood from flowing into our brain. The blood clot often happens because of atherosclerosis that is a buildup of the fatty deposits within the inner lining of blood vessels. A part of such fatty deposits may break off & restrict the flow of blood to our brain. The concept is same as that of heart attack, wherein blood clot restricts the flow of blood into a part of our heart.

Ischemic stroke could be embolic which means the blood clot travels from some part of our body into our brain. As per estimates 15% embolic strokes happen because of a condition is known as atrial fibrillation, wherein our heart beats irregularly.

A thrombotic stroke is ischemic stroke lead by a clot forming within blood vessels of our brain. Unlike TIA, a blood clot which leads to ischemic stroke would not go away without a treatment.

• Hemorrhagic stroke

A hemorrhagic stroke happens when a blood vessel of our brain breaks or ruptures, spilling blood inside the surrounding tissues.

2 kinds of hemorrhagic strokes exist. The 1^st is an aneurysm that causes a part of the weakened blood vessel to balloon outward & occasionally rupture. The other one is arteriovenous malformation that comprises of abnormally formed blood vessels. If that blood vessel ruptures, it could lead to hemorrhagic stroke.