RNS: Women & Stroke, May 2009
TIME: 2:08
URL: http://www2.med.umich.edu/prmc/media/newsroom/details.cfm?ID=1130
U-M Health Minute: Today’s top health issues and medical research
Women more likely to experience non-traditional stroke symptoms
Gender differences in symptoms may contribute to delay in treatment for women, signal need to change stroke public health campaigns
Suggested lead: Each year, 800-thousand Americans experience a stroke. It is the leading cause of serious disability and the third leading cause of death. But in women, doctors and bystanders should be paying attention to something else. Here is Andi McDonnell with more.
The traditional symptoms of stroke are well known and include a sudden-onset of numbness or weakness on one side of the body, trouble talking or understanding others and coordination problems.
But University of Michigan research indicates that women are likely to present with other non-traditional symptoms.
Dr. Lynda Lisabeth, (Ph.D., MPH), researcher in the department of neurology at the University of Michigan Health System tells us . . .
“What we’re finding in our research is that in addition to those traditional symptoms, which are experienced by women, women do experience what we would consider non-traditional symptoms. And the non-traditional symptom that really stood out in our study at the University of Michigan was altered mental status and women were more likely to present with altered mental status than men, and by altered mental status I mean confusion, disorientation or a loss of consciousness.”
Symptoms such as sudden numbness of the face, arm or leg are a warning sign of what’s happening in the body during a stroke which is a loss of blood supply to the brain because of a blocked or ruptured artery.
But the differences in symptoms may have consequences if slow recognition of stroke signs cause a delay in treatment, Lisabeth says. . .
“If the presence of one of these non-traditional stroke symptoms in some way causes a delay on the part of the woman who is experiencing the stroke, or by bystanders who are with the woman in terms of getting to the hospital, that could be a problem. If there are also delays on the side of healthcare professionals once at the hospital in terms of recognizing that the woman is having a stroke and diagnosing a stroke than that could also have implications in terms of the care that the woman may receive.
“Urgent care for stroke is critical. The only treatment that is currently FDA approved in the United States for stroke is TPA or what we would call a clot-busting drug. Importantly to administer TPA, people with stroke have to get to the hospital within 3 hours of symptom onset. So any delay on the part of actually getting to the hospital or delays once at the hospital could literally mean the difference between getting the therapy or not getting the therapy.”
Andi McDonnell, U-M Health System News.
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