Other Causes of a TIA

[caribooqueen]

Hi Everyone,
I'm 34,have recently suffered a TIA and have been going through all the hoops trying to discover why
I had one. I've had all the tests come back clear (bloodwork,CT scan,chest x-ray) and my doctor
seems very happy to leave it at that. I,do not as you can well imagine,not only for obvious reasons
but because my father has a disorder that makes his blood clot easily and has had many TIA and
strokes,himself. He's since dead and my mother cannot remember what his disorder was called so
I have been researching like a madwoman trying to come up with the answer myself,so I can have
something intelligent to take back to my doctor,so we may investigate things further.
Any thoughts or ideas on what I should be looking for?
I'm healthy and active and apparently not ill,according to my tests but clearly something is wrong.
People don't have TIA's for no reason. Thanks very much! Lael

[Dr_Aparna]

Hi,
Loss of blood supply to portions of the brain can occur for a variety of reasons. A blood vessel can get blocked and blood supply to a part of the brain is lost, or a blood vessel leaks blood into the brain (brain hemorrhage). Most commonly, the blood vessel is blocked. The blockage can be caused by a blood clot that forms in the blood vessel (thrombosis) or it can be caused by a clot or debris that floats downstream (embolus).
Causes are Atherosclerosis or "hardening of the arteries" can cause fatty plaque formations in he blood vessel wall.
an irregular heart beat called atrial fibrillation,
an aneurysm, a weak spot in a blood vessel that ruptures and spills blood into the brain tissue.
ref:http://www.medicinenet.com/transient_ischemic_attack_tia_mini-stroke/article.htm
Any oyher cause will have one of these as the mechanism which causes TIA/Stroke.

[Momto3]

Has your mom tried to get copies of your dad's medical records?  My father-in-law died and when my husband needed to know about his father's medical history, we were able to get copies of the records.  That might give you the information you need to share with your doctor.

If you don't mind my asking, how do you know you had a TIA?  I'm going for an MRI tomorrow to rule out stroke/TIA because of a visual problem and on a separate occasion, arm weakness.  There is a change the vision loss was from an ocular migraine and the arm heaviness was from "overuse" (computer), but the doctors want to be sure the two incidents are not related.

Good luck with getting the information you need.

connie