Dr. Italo Linfante, medical director of Interventional Neuroradiology for Baptist Health Neuroscience Center and Baptist Cardiac & Vascular Institute, discusses the warning signs of a stroke, as well as minimally invasive treatment options for brain aneurysms.

[Transcript]

[Baptist Health South Florida]
June Thomson:
This morning on Partners in Good Health, the topic is stroke, what to do when it strikes. Our guest is Dr. Italo Linfante. He's Director of Interventional Neuroradiology at Baptist Health South Florida. Dr. Linfante, thanks for joining us.
Dr. Italo Linfante:
Thank you, June. It's a pleasure being here.
[Interviewing Dr. Italo Linfante]
June Thomson:
First of all, what is a stroke and what are the warning signs?
Dr. Italo Linfante:
So a stroke is, first of all, we need to divide up. Basically there's two types of strokes. One type is when an artery inside of the brain, of essence of the brain, bursts, and you have a brain bleed. So brain bleeds, first type. Second time when there's a clot that blocks off the circulation of blood to the brain, and this case you have something we call ischemia. The ischemic stroke, meaning the lack of blood flow to the brain, is basically like a heart attack. So a brain attack like a heart attack. And in this case, warning signs are sudden onset of a weakness on one side, difficulty speaking. These are the most worrisome warning signs. For a bleed, the most important warning sign is a sudden onset of the worst headache of someone's life, so severe headache at onset. And this case, you have to go to the emergency room immediately.
June Thomson:
All right. Well, that sort of answers my next question because when you start to feel these symptoms coming on, or you're with someone who is exhibiting these symptoms, what do you do first? What is the very first thing?
Dr. Italo Linfante:
So that's absolutely right. Unfortunately, most of these patients, because the brain is involved, most of these patients, either they're not aware of what's happening other they lose consciousness or they can speak. So the people who are close to them are basically the people who are going to be the most important providers, because they're the one who have to call 91 and bring the patient to the closest emergency room.
June Thomson:
So call 911, that's the most important thing.
Dr. Italo Linfante:
911 is the most important thing to for someone who's close to someone who has a stroke. If the stroke is not that severe at the beginning, and the patient can call itself 911, but that's more rare. The most common thing that someone who's close to them can call 911. The saddest part sometimes in stroke is that the patient falls to the ground and is found on the ground by a family member or a loved one.
June Thomson:
Okay. So if that happens, that's a very scary thing to think about. You're with someone and they fall to the ground, and I think probably what you really want to do is reach down and help that person. But it's important to remember to call 911 [crosstalk 00:02:52] first and get help on the way. What's the potential impact of a stroke on an individual or his or her family?
Dr. Italo Linfante:
That's another good question. So as according to recent data, stroke is the third leading cause of death in this country. Same thing, we have similar data, now that medicine is becoming more global, we have similar data from Asia and Southern America, and it's the same thing. So number one is a heart attack. Number two is cancer. Number three stroke. So it has a tremendous impact on our society. And also, stroke is the first cause of disability.
June Thomson:
What's an aneurysm and are aneurysms life-threatening?
Dr. Italo Linfante:
Yes. So an aneurysm is basically a weak spot in the artery. It's like a bubble on a tire to put it this way. So because of course the brain receives one fifth of the cardiac output, so receives a tremendous amount of blood all the time, because it'd be a lot with our brains, and so this bubble can potentially burst, and then when this bubble burst burst inside the brain. So that's why we say that vascular malformation and aneurysms are like time bombs, because all of a sudden when least expected it can burst, and of course causing a brain hemorrhage.
June Thomson:
And there aren't Warning signs.
Dr. Italo Linfante:
Sometimes there are sometimes there aren't. Sometimes if the aneurysm is close to nerves that control the face, you're going to have cranial nerve palsy, you can have double vision, difficulty speaking, but sometimes the first sign of a ruptured aneurysm is the worst headache of someone's life and loss of consciousness. Some patients pass out immediately.
June Thomson:
Can you fix them? Can you prevent them from occurring before they bleed?
Dr. Italo Linfante:
Yeah, so this is a great advantage of the last 10 years, which is unprecedented. We're only able to

[End Transcript]

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