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Routine screening for causes of stroke is vital - Mweemba

Routine screening for causes of stroke is vital - Mweemba
By Masuzyo Chakwe
Fri 22 June 2012, 13:21 CAT

ABOUT three to five Zambians are admitted every day at the UTH adult filter clinic with severe stroke, says Dr Aggrey Mweemba.

Dr Mweemba who is University Teaching Hospital head of renal unit and Ministry of Health focal point person for kidney diseases, said stroke was very common in Zambia especially in people with hypertension, HIV, sugar disease and heart diseases.

"Three to five people are admitted every day in the UTH adult filter clinic with severe stroke. Unfortunately the death rate is very high in patients with severe stroke. One to two of the admissions die at UTH due to the gravity of the condition," he said.

He explained that stroke occurred when blood supply to a particular area of the brain was interrupted or cut, leading to death of brain cells in that area.

Dr Mweemba said interruption of blood supply to the brain could happen as a result of a blood clot within a blood vessel which blocks flow of blood to the brain.

"It can also happen when a blood vessel bursts or ruptures, which interrupts blood supply to the areas of the brain beyond the rupture," he said.

He said the four common causes of stroke in Zambians were high blood pressure which commonly led to rupture of blood vessels in the brain.

Other causes were diabetes or sugar disease which causes blood clot formation or blood vessel rupture; HIV infection and related diseases and heart diseases which cause clot formation.

Dr Mweemba said other risk factors included smoking, high and bad cholesterol, and lack of exercises.

Others are excessive alcohol intake, and areas of balloon-like budging along the blood vessels, which render the wall of the blood vessel weak and can easily form a clot or rupture.

"Diseases that render blood to easily bleed or clot can lead to stroke like kidney diseases, sickle cell disease, liver disease, drugs like oral combined contraceptives, aspirin, warfarin, second and third line ARVs. Symptoms include weakness or numbness or pain on one side of the body. This can be weakness of the arm, leg and face on one side of the body. Other symptoms may include difficulty speaking or understanding speech, confusion, difficulties in passing urine and stool (either inability to pass urine and stool or urinary and faecal incontinence). Stroke can also present with visual loss or poor vision in one or both eyes," he said.

He said a stroke could occur at any age depending on the cause.

"Among HIV patients, it's common between 15-45 because this is the age group mostly affected by HIV. In high blood pressure and diabetic patients, stroke is common above 40 years of age in Zambians," he said.

Dr Mweemba said stroke was better prevented than treated and the only way to prevent was first to know whether one had a disease or risk associated with stroke.

"If one has a risk for stroke, a lot can be done to prevent stroke. Prevention strategies include; treatment of hypertension, sugar disease, HIV and any other disease that may cause stroke. Taking medications as prescribed by your health worker is crucial in preventing strokes," he said "Minimising salt intake in your food is important to control your blood pressure. Avoiding junk foods is important to avoid bad cholesterol. Avoiding excessive alcohol, cessation of smoking and regular exercising have tremendous health benefits which can prevent stroke. All these measures go a long way to prevent stroke," he said.

Dr Mweemba said when one had a stroke, the treatment was aimed at preventing further interruption of blood supply to the brain.

"You treat the cause of the stroke at that point. If it's high blood pressure, or diabetes or high bad cholesterol, you give medications to control the cause so that it doesn't worsen the condition. You may unblock the blood vessel using medication or surgery. You can also stop the bleeding by pushing a special wire and burning it around the area of the bleed to stop the bleed," Dr Mweemba said.

"These are expensive procedures done in highly specialised centres in developed countries and South Africa. Thus prevention is the answer in Zambia.

Unfortunately, when brain cells die, it takes a long time to recover or the brain cells may not recover. This is why most people who have had a stroke remain with some weakness of some kind permanently."

Dr Mweemba advised Zambians to go for routine screening for common causes of stroke as it was preventable.

"Routine screening for common causes of stroke is important. Treatment and good adherence to medications for those individuals with high risk factors is important in order to prevent stroke," said Dr Mweemba.

Labels: HEALTHCARE

posted by MrK @ 2:44 PM