High blood pressure, smoking and diabetes can contribute to thickening of these vessels. Because such strokes damage smaller areas of the brain at a time, their effect may be only isolated weakening of muscles or numbness on one side. If such strokes recur, they can produce dementia. Hemorrhagic strokes occur because a blood vessel feeding the brain develops a weakened area that breaks, leaking blood into or around the brain. High blood pressure can contribute to a weakening of arterial walls and increase the risk of hemorrhagic stroke.
Time is a very significant factor in determining outcome after a stroke.
Once a TIA or stroke is suspected, physicians at an emergency room or medical center try to determine the cause and pinpoint the location of the problem vessel. Expert advice may be sought from a neurologist, surgeon or radiologist specializing in blood vessels or stroke. Newer techniques for imaging the brain that create detailed pictures of brain tissue allow prompt and more accurate determination of whether a stroke is caused by blockage or leakage of a blood vessel. Imaging of the heart and its vessels by echocardiography can help locate the site that launched an embolism and determine other factors which may have contributed to past or potential strokes. As many of these technologies improve, doctors are able to obtain more information, faster, using less invasive procedures.