Stroke misdiagnosis can have serious and sometimes fatal consequences for an individual, which is why Palm Beach Gardens stroke misdiagnosis testing is so important. The type of stroke a patient has influences the type of test ordered. By using proper testing measures, a doctor can more accurately diagnose the type of stroke that a person is having and get them the proper treatment. If an individual has been misdiagnosed with the wrong kind of stroke, they should speak with a capable and compassionate stroke misdiagnosis lawyer that could answer their questions and fight for them.
Common Stroke Misdiagnosis Testing
In Palm Beach Gardens, the tests and procedures regarded as the standard of care for strokes are CT-scans: CT and CTA. If that CT-scan is normal, the doctor should get a CTA right after that. That is usually the step that gets missed in many stroke cases. They see a normal CT-scan and they do not do the next step to get the CTA, which is the CT with contrast. A normal CT-scan does not mean that a person is not having a stroke. It means that the stroke might be early on and there is still time to save the brain before it dies.
Why Order a Less Accurate Test?
A Palm Beach Gardens doctor might order a test or procedure with less accuracy because they could get a CT-scan done and read faster than an MRI.
There are not any blood tests that a doctor might order to rule out a stroke in Palm Beach Gardens. They could check glucose levels because those may go up during a stroke, but it is not the test of choice for figuring out if somebody is having a stroke.
Brain-Computed Tomography
When discussing Palm Beach Gardens stroke misdiagnosis testing, it is impossible to not mention CT scans. Brain-computed tomography is the CT-scan. CT-scans allow doctors to look at the different densities in the brain and the way that the fluids are to tell whether or not somebody is having a stroke and how long ago the stroke happened. A CTA, which is a CT-scan with contrast, gives more details about what is going on in the person’s brain.
How Would This Help Diagnose a Stroke?
It would help diagnose a stroke because a hemorrhagic stroke would show up right away on a CT-scan and an ischemic stroke would show up after several hours. If nothing shows up on a regular CT-scan, the next step is to get a CTA because that would show whether or not a person is having an early ischemic stroke, which could be treated and could have a good outcome after treatment.
How MRIs Can Help Diagnose Strokes
Magnetic resonance imaging or MRI is another type of brain scan in which magnets are used. This type of Palm Beach Gardens stroke misdiagnosis testing could also be used to look for strokes in the brain similar to a CT. CT-scans show a little bit more detail and take longer to perform than an MRI. Typically, doctors order a CT-scan instead of an MRI because it helps diagnose a stroke because it looks for either a clot or bleeding on the brain and shows where brain cells have started to die.
Role of EKGs in Stroke Diagnosis
An electrocardiogram, EKG, might help diagnose a stroke because for some patients who are having a stroke the EKG would be abnormal. It is important to look at the EKG and see if something is going on that could be a sign that somebody is having a stroke. Also, sometimes the blood clots originate in the heart and an EKG might see some signs of that.
ECOs and Stroke Diagnoses
Another type of Palm Beach Gardens stroke misdiagnosis testing is echocardiography or ECO. ECO might help diagnose a stroke, because it is like a sonogram of the heart, using sounds to bounce off the heart to look at the structure of it. It could also be used to see if somebody has blood clots that may have started in their heart, that are traveling to their brain, and that are causing blockages, which is a stroke.
How Does the Diagnostic Process for Differ Depending on the Type of Stroke?
The diagnosis process for hemorrhagic and ischemic strokes differs in Palm Beach Gardens because with hemorrhagic stroke there is bleeding in the brain and there is not a lot of treatment that may be done to reverse the effect. If the pressure gets too high in the brain with the buildup of blood, a neurosurgeon could drain the blood or do other things to relieve the pressure. If someone is having an ischemic stroke, which is when there is a blood clot blocking an artery or a vein, there is much more treatment available. A patient has a better chance of having a good outcome after an ischemic stroke.
The diagnosis process starts out similar because in both types of strokes one needs a neurological exam, which is a physical exam, and a CT-scan. A hemorrhagic stroke shows up right away on a CT-scan. That ends the diagnostic process. They go to the neurosurgeon to figure out if they need surgery. If it is an ischemic stroke that is not showing up on the CT, they need to do the CTA and have a neurologist and an interventional neuro-radiologist get involved to figure out whether the best treatment is only medication called CTA or if that person would also benefit from a thrombectomy, which is a surgery that removes the clots from the brain. If an individual wants to know more about Palm Beach Gardens stroke misdiagnosis testing, they should speak with a knowledgeable stroke misdiagnosis attorney that could help them stay informed, and pursue whichever legal options are available to them.
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