Signs and Symptoms of Strokes

Symptoms of a stroke can include numbness or loss of strength in an extremity. Slurred speech, blindness in one eye or tingling in your fingertips may also be signs of a stroke.

What are the signs and symptoms of a stroke? Dr. Amy Epps: From a cardiovascular standpoint; certainly symptoms of a stroke are numbness or loss of strength in an extremity, blindness in one eye, those are more obvious profound symptoms. Other things that you may not really pay as much attention to it if you just get sort of a very brief sort of tingling in your fingertips, usually one side or the other, and that's called a TIA or Transient Ischemic Attack. Or if you have some slurred speech and a lot of times you won't even notice that it might be someone that you're with will notice that your speech sounds a little funny, that's very concerning and if that's a new thing for you, you need to go and get that checked out pretty immediately. Again from the cardiovascular standpoint, as far as the disease process affecting the vessels, it can also affect the vessels to the extremities, the legs and the arms, and a very common symptom that I hear are from patients that is related to poor circulation to the legs, or when they walk they get cramps in their calves, and it goes away when they rest. And that's called Claudication, and that can be a very concerning sign that you may have very poor circulation or blockages in the arteries to your legs, and that needs to be recognized and treated, and it can be fixed as well.