The difficulty in diagnosing this condition in infants can cause serious long-term sequelae
Late diagnosis of stroke in children is the main cause of nearly 80% of children left with severe neurological damage. This points out an investigation of the National Institute of Spills in Melbourne, Australia, led by Costa Rican pediatrician Yock Adriana Corrales.
Yock Corrales made a specialization in medical emergencies in that country for a year and a half. The report, released at a medical conference, said that, on average, a diagnosis of childhood stroke is given 26 hours after it occurs, when it is too late to act without generating severe consequences that affect memory; motor or for life cause seizures in children.
“The problem is that it is more difficult to recognize a stroke in children than in adults. An adult recognize the symptoms and see your doctor, but a very young child does not know how to express their feelings because parents can not speak, and For older children who do express their ideas, often leaving parents to spend time waiting to improve and rather harm them, “said Yock.
“It’s easy to know what adults are prone to a stroke, because they are people with high cholesterol or hypertension. But children usually are small with genetic heart disease or were not expressed before, so they are apparently very healthy” he added.
Stroke
The spill is also known as attack or stroke. There are two types of stroke, the ischemic and hemorrhagic. The ischemic stroke occurs when an artery or vein in the brain is blocked and prevents blood flow to part of the brain. After a few minutes, cells begin to die from lack of oxygen and nutrients. 88% of strokes are this type.
The hemorrhagic stroke occurs when a blood vessel in the brain ruptures and bleeds. Upon bleeding within the brain, cells do not receive oxygen and nutrients. The pressure increases in the surrounding tissues and cause inflammation. 12% of strokes are this type.
These conditions are rare in children, its incidence is similar to that of a brain tumor. In Costa Rica there are eight or nine years.
The study
The first part of the research was to make a retrospective study of cases of stroke in Melbourne, Australia, for five years. 49 cases were studied. The average age of the children was 7.3 years, 57% were completely healthy children and no history of serious illness.
To give a final diagnosis, doctors delayed 26 hours. These delays were mainly due to parents of children did not realize from the beginning, the general practitioners not detected or that there was no MRI available for analysis.
For a stroke can be met on time and not leave any sickness, the child must be treated in the first six hours. During this time, it still may be given drugs to break up clots and keep blood reaching the brain normally.
If a child is late to the hospital, all doctors can do is stop a second stroke by that time because the consequences are inevitable. “Detect rapid stroke in a child has a chain of responsibility. Parents should note the symptoms quickly, but this is useless if general practitioners do not detect the signs of a stroke. This means that children are treated late and neurological damage are inevitable for many of these children, “Yock said.
The next step of research is to develop a tool to better diagnose patients and to treat them faster. This would also detect differences between stroke and other diseases with similar symptoms. “When you are finished go back to my job specialization in Children’s Hospital. There, unfortunately there is no magnetic resonance imaging that allows us to provide rapid results, but is working on that, “Yock said.