Cerebrovascular accident or stroke (Table 13) is a syndrome associated with the interruption of blood supply to a portion of the brain causing neurologic deficit. Most commonly, a stroke is secondary to an evolving blood clot associated with atherosclerosis that progressively blocks a cerebral artery. Alternatively, it may be due to an embolus that lodged in a cerebral artery obstructing blood flow or result from subarachnoid or intracerebral hemorrhage into brain tissue. Stroke-like symptoms lasting less than 1 hour are termed transient ischemia attacks (TIA).
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