Brain stroke is the third leading cause of death after heart attack and cancer and the causes are same as that of heart attack, the main being atherosclerosis i.e hardening of artieries, said Dr. Shailendra Jain, Director (Medical and Health Services & Neuro Physician) while delivering a lecture on Brain Stroke at PG College of Nursing here, a release said on Tuesday.
He further said “due to deprivation of blood supply because of clot formation in artery. The brain suffers from infarction. Due to infarction the brain cells die and person develops paralysis, usually half side of body which is called hemiplegia. In the heart attack if this happens thrombolysis (dissolving blood clot by streptokinase injection is done immediately as window period is 24 hours.”
He added, however, in brain this window period is 4-6 hrs only, therefore there is a need for public awareness so that a patient of stroke should reach hospital immediately.
The early sign of stroke elaborated by Dr. Jain, Director is “FAST”. It means recognition of Facial weakness, Arm Weakness, Slurring of speech and reading at the earliest (Time) for the treatment.The new drug RTPA (recombinant tissue plasminogene activator) marketed as ateplase is
given immediately to dissolve the clot.
Therefore it is utmost important to recognise the symptoms and transport the patient to specialized hospital.
For the prevention of formation of clot Dr. Jain elaborated that one should avoid high calorie diet, fatty meal and stop smoking. Hypertension and diabetes are two most common ailments associated with stroke.
Therefore one should avoid anxiety, tension, do regular exercises and yoga besides control of hypertension and diabetes. It is better to eat vegetables and low cholesterol diet.
Dr. Abhileka Biswal, principal welcomed the speaker and Dr. Shree Pillai, vice principal, Mrs. S C Jain and other staff along with large number of nursing students were present.The programme was organised by Association of Neurosciences, Durg-Bhilai and Sandhan Santhan, Bhilai.
It was 9th such awareness programme of the series. Dr. Adarsh Trivedi, secretary of Association of Neurosciences, Durg-Bhilai and Prof. D N Sharma was specially present. Dr. Adarsh added that such programme will be organised on a mega scale in January, 2014 at Kala Mandir or Bhilai Mahila Mahavidayalay.