Diseases

Transient Ischemic Attack

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A brief episode of neurological dysfunction resulting from an interruption in the blood supply to the brain or the eye, sometimes as a precursor of a stroke.

SYMPTOMS

Transient ischemic attacks usually last a few minutes. Most signs and symptoms disappear within an hour. The signs and symptoms of a tia resemble those found early in a stroke and may include sudden onset of:

weakness, numbness or paralysis in your face, arm or leg, typically on one side of your body
slurred or garbled speech or difficulty understanding others
blindness in one or both eyes or double vision
dizziness or loss of balance or coordination
sudden, severe headache with no known cause
You may have more than one tia, and the recurrent signs and symptoms may be similar or different depending on which area of the brain is involved.

CAUSES

A transient ischemic attack has the same origins as that of an ischemic stroke, the most common type of stroke. In an ischemic stroke, a clot blocks the blood supply to part of your brain. In a transient ischemic attack, unlike a stroke, the blockage is brief, and there is usually no permanent damage.
The underlying cause of a tia often is a buildup of cholesterol-containing fatty deposits called plaques (atherosclerosis) in an artery or one of its branches that supplies oxygen and nutrients to your brain.
Plaques can decrease the blood flow through an artery or lead to the development of a clot. A blood clot moving to an artery that supplies your brain from another part of your body, most commonly from your heart, also may cause a tia.