Pediatric stroke strikes more than six in every 100,000 children each year, according to numerous recent studies. Common symptoms of childhood stroke include:
- seizures
- weakness or paralysis on one side of the body
- severe headache
- difficulty speaking or slurred speech
- severe and long-lasting nausea or vomiting for no apparent reason
- blurred vision or vision loss
- loss of balance, difficulty walking
Although up to one-third of pediatric strokes have an unknown cause, Cleveland Clinic pediatric neurologist Neil Friedman, M.B., Ch.B., points to a number of underlying causes that can put a child at risk for a stroke:
- congenital heart disease
- blood clotting disorders
- viral infections, such as chicken pox
- sickle cell disease
- blood vessel disorders, such as dissection, moyamoya disease, vasculitis and neurofibromatosis
Certain populations of children have increased risk of stroke. For example, African-American children with sickle cell disease (SCD) are twice as likely to have an outright or silent stroke compared to healthy children. Called "silent" because they don't offer the classic symptoms of stroke, silent strokes still cause real damage to the brain, affecting cognitive, memory, motor and language skills. The STOP trial (Stroke Prevention in Sickle Cell Anemia), which involved periodic blood transfusions in SCD patients with significant vessel narrowing to lower their hemoglobin S levels to below 30 percent, showed a 92 percent reduction of stroke in that group, compared with standard therapy, according to Dr. Friedman.
Asian children, too, have an increased risk of stroke from moyamoya disease, a vascular disease in which blood vessels are displaced on the brain. Moyamoya means "puff of smoke" in Japanese and refers to the clump of abnormal blood vessels that forms as a result of the blockage. These children can benefit from neurosurgery, Dr. Friedman explains, "to move blood vessels from outside the brain to inside the brain."
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Understanding Stroke
This information is provided by the Cleveland Clinic and is not intended to replace the medical advice of your doctor or health care provider. Please consult your health care provider for advice about a specific medical condition. This document was last reviewed on: 8/1/2006
