Embolic Stroke Symptoms: What are they?
Symptoms of embolus include:
Difficulty breathing (asphyxia) or chest pain (pulmonary edema). Chest pain may occur even when there is no signs of respiratory distress.
There may be a feeling of choking. Breathing becomes difficult, shallow, and irregular. You feel like you cannot take any deep breaths at all. You have difficulty swallowing, which results in drooling and vomiting. You vomit blood from your mouth and nose. Your skin feels hot to the touch.
The most common symptom is difficulty breathing (asphyxia), but other symptoms such as chest pain, nausea, vomiting blood, sweating, dizziness and confusion may occur. Other possible symptoms include shortness of breath (dyspnea) or fainting (syncope).
If you experience these symptoms immediately after having a heart attack or stroke then it means that you had an embolus event.
What Causes Embolus?
There are several factors that can cause an embolus event. The most common causes of embolus include heart attacks, blood clots in the legs (deep vein thrombosis), after surgery, during pregnancy, use of birth control pills and during a long car ride.
Traumatic causes of embotlism include gunshots and explosions. Air or gas embolism can also cause an embolus event.
Arterial embolism can be life threatening. It occurs when arterial blood flow is blocked by emboli. If severe, it can result in loss of blood supply to the organs and death.
The major causes of embolus include infection, disease, cancer, trauma and drugs. Certain factors can increase the risk of developing embolus such as age, family history, smoking, pregnancy, obesity and genetic conditions.
How is it Diagnosed?
If you experience symptoms of embolism then you may receive embolism treatment immediately.
Sources & references used in this article:
Immediate anticoagulation of embolic stroke: brain hemorrhage and management options by RG Hart, KI Lock-Wood, AM Hakim, R Koller… – Stroke, 1984 – arizona.pure.elsevier.com
Recombinant tissue plasminogen activator in acute thrombotic and embolic stroke by GJ Del Zoppo, K Poeck, MS Pessin… – Annals of …, 1992 – Wiley Online Library
Recent heavy drinking of alcohol and embolic stroke by M Hillbom, H Numminen, S Juvela – Stroke, 1999 – Am Heart Assoc
