'Ministrokes' may cause more damage than thought

Many people recognize the symptoms of a stroke: numbness, slurred speech, death, etc. The symptoms of a ministroke are much easier to dismiss. With numbness or dizziness lasting as short as a few minutes, the person suffering the ministroke could attribute the symptoms to some other cause. It has long been thought that the damage inflicted by ministrokes was insignificant, but recent studies indicate that they may do a lot more damage than we initially thought. Standard cognitive tests show minimal decrease in brain function, while other tests, designed to test “executive function”, show that as many as 40% of those who suffer from ministrokes may experience brain damage.

I find this interesting because my grandma used to have ministrokes, and her doctors told her that they were, in themselves, harmless. The doctors said that the ministrokes were a risk factor for a “real” stroke, but that they were not doing any damage. It is interesting to know that they may have been doing damage all along.

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/56598/title/Ministrokes_may_cause_more_damage_than_thought