Stroke after Angiogram for Heart

[betsyboo]

My 88 year old mother had an angiogram (tube placed through her groin) 10 days ago, due to narrowing of the arteries to the heart.  Her GP seems to think this may have caused a mild stroke - is this possible?  To me she has no outward stroke symptoms although she cannot remember everything as she did before -- she is nowhere near as 'alert' (doing crosswords etc) and says her head feels like it is full of 'cotton wool'.  Is this possible and is there any treatment for this type of stroke?  She is not slurring, has full use of her limbs although says she feels she is 'limping where the angiogram tube went in her groin'. I must stress she was absolutely fine before the angiogram.  Help please!

[ArjayEss]

Stroke is a (slight) risk associated with cardiac catheterization.  It's rare, but as we see here, it can happen.

[IronIcarus]

My brother went in for an angiogram to find a possible blockage in his right arm. Which may have been causing loss of blood flow to his hand, therefore makking it necroptic (dying and turning black). I was told he went in through the groin, the heart looked good, but did find a blockage in his right arm, and was going to do a second proceedure the next day to fix the right arm. The doctor was going to start at the shoulder for the second proceedure. His wife had relayed this to me. She then called me back 15 minutes later to tell me he had a stroke. It turned out to be massive 1/4 of his brain, affecting his left side, speech and swallowing. he managed to get back his speech and swallowing The swallowing was helped with a surgical procedure on his voice box. I saw the surgeon the next morning after the stroke and he also told me 1%, in fact he used 1% so often it bothered me. I hope this isn't the same surgeon, my brothers was done in Huntington Hospital, Suffolk, NY. I have spoken with a couple vascular surgeons since and they are perplexed with what happened when I tell them he had a stroke from an angiogram to find a blockage in his arm.

[kathyinky]

my father in law, who is 80, was extremely healthy and very independent until his heart attack 6-20-07 and they did an angiogram. He had a stroke right afterwards as the plaque broke loose and fried his brain. he went to rehab and now can shuffle instead of walk, his memory is very bad and getting worse just since June.  He has spells that he is a angry person and lashes out at everyone or everything and I know he can't help it and never remembers any of it.  He also has a 90% blockage in the heart so it is a matter of time. He lives with us now and I left my job to take care of him. At times, it is VERY HARD but at other times, I just want him to be taken care of the best he can be and when he looks up at me and smiles with those big blue eyes, that makes it all worthwhile

god bless you dad....your daughter-in-law Kathy

[strokefromAVM]

I suffered a small stroke after having an Angiogram done to review my brain after having an AVM removed. I am 37 and have suffered short term memory loss. I have a hard time remembering names and places. Long term memories were not affected. No one else seems to have this problem I suffered. Is this common? I hope to find people with a similar problem.

[laurri]

My Dad, age 76, had a stoke last month DURING an angiogram.
He has gone from totally independant, out everyday, driving, shopping, sunbathing and caretaker for my mother to completely bedridden and dependant. He is paralyzed on the right, cannot speak or swallow and has a stomach tube. He is in a nursing home now and seems to each day lose more and more of his memory.
Our doctor has told us that less than 1% of angiograms result in stroke. How unfair.   As it turns out, the results of the test indicated 80% blockage in two and 100% in the other two and a severely leaky valve.
Just a matter of time....
It would have been better to just live
his last days as they were and had a sudden heart attack.
I don't blame the doctor, or God. I just wish it hadn't happened.
Laurri

[gigiwong38]

Hi .I'm sorry to hear about your father. My father too. 69, had a minor stroke after doing angiogram. I didn't realise until I notice whenever he had angiogram(3times) he will suffer from TIA. Now I found out 1% is my dad as well. 1st time he had minor stroke, he can't walk, face drolling. So we send him acupunture plus doing physio and taking chinese medicine and he recover within a month.  Now he suffer second time of minor stroke, we continue our acupunture and see how it goes. One thing I'm not happy about the doctor is , he never told me his stroke is caused by doing angiogram. Anyway, best of luck !

[betsyboo]

Many thanks for your help, I do appreciate it.  I will mention your comments to her GP and she is seeing a specialist asap.

Regards and thanks again.