What are the systems of a stroke?

So many possible symptoms. Please read this authentic information from US National Library of Medicine: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/strok...

The American Stroke Association wants you to learn the warning signs of stroke:

Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body
Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding
Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination
Sudden, severe headache with no known cause.

It varies with each person:
- Numbness
- Slurring of speech
- Unconsciousness
- etc.

What to do: Call 911 in emergency, important to maintain oxygen and breathing

Stroke symptoms typically develop rapidly (seconds to minutes). The symptoms of a stroke are related to the anatomical location of the damage; nature and severity of the symptoms can therefore vary widely. Ischemic strokes usually only affect regional areas of the brain perfused by the blocked artery. Hemorrhagic strokes can affect local areas, but often can also cause more global symptoms due to bleeding and increased intracranial pressure. On the basis of the history and neurological examination, as well as the presence of risk factors, a doctor can rapidly diagnose the anatomical nature of the stroke (i.e. which part of the brain is affected), even if the exact cause is not yet known.

Pre-hospital care professionals in the United Kingdom will typically want to identify stroke risk very rapidly. If they suspect a stroke, they will typically use the FAST test to assess likelihood:

Face - look to see if there is any drooping or loss of muscle tone on the face
Arm - ask the patient to close their eyes and hold both arms out straight for 30 seconds - in a patient with a stroke, you might see one arm tending to slowly move down
Speech - listen to see if you can hear any slurring of the speech not otherwise explained (e.g. alcohol) and see if they can answer simple questions (where are you?, what's your name?, what day of the week is it?)
Test all three - given that any one of the four signs might be present, all three have to be tested (and documented)
If the area of the brain affected contains one of the three prominent Central nervous system pathways鈥攖he spinothalamic tract, corticospinal tract, and dorsal column (medial lemniscus), symptoms may include:

hemiplegia and muscle weakness of the face
numbness
reduction in sensory or vibratory sensation
In most cases, the symptoms affect only one side of the body (unilateral). The defect in the brain is usually on the opposite side of the body (depending on which part of the brain is affected). However, the presence of any one of these symptoms does not necessarily suggest a stroke, since these pathways also travel in the spinal cord and any lesion there can also produce these symptoms.

In addition to the above CNS pathways, the brainstem also consists of the 12 cranial nerves. A stroke affecting the brainstem therefore can produce symptoms relating to deficits in these cranial nerves:

altered smell, taste, hearing, or vision (total or partial)
drooping of eyelid (ptosis) and weakness of ocular muscles
decreased reflexes: gag, swallow, pupil reactivity to light
decreased sensation and muscle weakness of the face
balance problems and nystagmus
altered breathing and heart rate
weakness in sternocleidomastoid muscle with inability to turn head to one side
weakness in tongue (inability to protrude and/or move from side to side)
If the cerebral cortex is involved, the CNS pathways can again be affected, but also can produce the following symptoms:

aphasia (inability to speak or understand language from involvement of Broca's or Wernicke's area)
apraxia (altered voluntary movements)
visual field defect
memory deficits (involvement of temporal lobe)
hemineglect (involvement of parietal lobe)
disorganized thinking, confusion, hypersexual gestures (with involvement of frontal lobe)
anosognosia (persistent denial of the existence of a, usually stroke-related, deficit)
If the cerebellum is involved, the patient may have the following:

trouble walking
altered movement coordination
vertigo and or disequilibrium
Loss of consciousness, headache, and vomiting usually occurs more often in hemorrhagic stroke than in thrombosis because of the increased intracranial pressure from the leaking blood compressing on the brain.

If symptoms are maximal at onset, the cause is more likely to be a subarachnoid hemorrhage or an embolic stroke.