Stroke or Brain Attack most often describes the clogging of a cerebral blood vessel by a thrombus or embolism and the subsequent loss of oxygen to a part of the brain, or the rupture of a vessel with concomitant bleeding into the brain or pressure within the cranium.
Stroke is both a disease and a symptom, indicating an underlying problem in blood vessels.
Report of Final Mortality Statistics, Vol. 45, No. 11, Supp. All rights reserved.