Stroke secondary to FMD

Alternative names

Fibromuscular dysplasia - stroke secondary to

Definition

Stroke secondary to FMD is an interruption of blood flow to the brain due to deformities in arteries supplying the brain.

Causes, incidence, and risk factors

Stroke secondary to fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD) primarily affects women, especially those older than 50.

FMD is an inherited disorder involving the ongoing destruction of arterial blood vessels. There are areas of increased muscle and fibrous tissue in the wall of the affected arteries, which alternate with enlarged (dilated) areas of destroyed tissue. This irregularity in the arteries increases the risk for stroke.

The disease may affect the neck arteries that supply blood to the brain (carotid) or the arteries within the brain (cerebral) and cause stroke. It may also affect the following arteries:

• Kidneys (renal)
  
• Intestinal tract (mesenteric)
  
• Heart (coronary)
  
• Groin (iliac)
  

Secondary symptoms include high blood pressure, leg pain, heart attack, kidney failure, and other disorders.

Risks include a personal or family history of FMD.

Symptoms

• Weakness or total inability to move a body part
  
• Numbness, tingling or other abnormal sensations
  
• Decreased or lost vision, partial or temporary
  
• Language difficulties (aphasia)
  
• Inability to recognize or identify sensory stimuli (agnosia)
  
• Loss of memory
  
• Vertigo (abnormal sensation of movement)
  
• Loss of coordination
  
• Swallowing difficulties
  
• Personality changes
  
• Mood and emotion changes
  
• Urinary incontinence (lack of control over bladder)
  
• Lack of control over the bowels
  
• Consciousness changes:
  o Sleepiness
  o Stupor, lethargy
  o Coma, loss of consciousness
  

Signs and tests
The exact location and extent of the stroke, and changes in the arteries indicating FMD, including berry aneurysms (small ballooned-out areas of the artery), may be seen on: