Hello, Friends I am Dr. Mohammad Ateequr Rehman, Stroke and Interventional Neurologist. In our previous short talks, I told you that stroke is sudden decrease in the blood flow to a part of the brain leading to neuronal cell death which causes the symptoms. Stroke is a very heterogeneous disease and presents itself in various ways, it also varies with the etiology. We have discussed the stroke symptoms earlier with the pneumonic BE-FAST,

B – Balance

E – Eye Vision (Decrease in vision or double vision)

F – Facial Weakness

A – Arm Weakness

S – Speech Difficulty

T – Time of onset

Stroke as an Emergency:

Stroke is an emergency, as discussed earlier the time of onset is very important. The early you start the treatment the better the results, or the better we are able to treat the neuronal cell death. So, we need to reach the hospital as early as possible, choose the hospital where the emergency physicians are available and who are experienced in stroke care. The hospital must also have emergency facilities in the form of CT – Scan, MRI – Scans, Blood test, and reports should be available as early as possible which helps in diagnosis. Stroke is normally diagnosed normally by clinical symptoms (Like BE – FAST). Imaging is another way to decide the treatment of the stroke, as we know stroke is of two types Ischemic stroke and Hemorrhagic stroke.