Last night I came across a 36 year old male Japanese, who consulted the emergency room due to left sided numbness. It came suddenly while the patient is drinking coffee, no headache nor dizziness were associated with the numbness. At the emergency room, patient was then noted wit slurring of speech, facial asymmetry and eventually left sided weakness. A couple of hours after the above events, I went back to the patient to see how he is doing and it surprised me that the above symptoms were gone. Left sided weakness was not appreciated, slurring of speech and facial asymmetry were also not noted. It came to me that this might be a case of transient ischemic attack or maybe its a beginning stroke.
TIA or transient ischemic attack is defined as a neurologic deficit like weakness or numbness which usually resolves within 24 hours. Usually having a TIA is a sign that the patient is in impending stroke or might proceed to stroke. As with stroke, TIA also shares the same etiology which is disruption of blood flow to the brain. Early detection is important.
For the patient last night, hopefully he could recover from his neurologic deficit and be back to his normal life after his hospital stay.
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