Question

68-year-old man was brought to the emergency department by his family. During his routine morning walk he noticed a sudden onset of left facial numbness associated with a dull headache on the right posterior aspect of his head. He was staggering to the right side and feeling unsteady and nauseated, with no vomiting. He telephoned his wife, who noticed his speech was slow and slurred, but there was no word-finding difficulty. His family immediately took him to the hospital. There was a history of hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, ischemic heart disease (MI and PCI with bare metal stent in 2007) and probable transient ischemic attack (TIA) at the time of cardiac intervention. His medication included atenolol, ramipril, simvastatin, aspirin and clopidogrel. Within one hour, the patient’s symptoms had totally resolved. The diagnosis of transient ischemic attack was made, and the patient was discharged to home with instructions to contact his healthcare provider (HCP) for follow-up. Question: Why did the patient’s symptoms totally resolve?

Answer 1

• The old man got his symotoms resolved, due to the impact of the medications he had taken at the right time.As mentioned, the drugs taken by him included,>>

1. ATENOLOL- medication for high blood pressure , prevention of stroke.
2. RAMPIRIL- It helps prevent the suseptibility of an attack well beforehand.
3. SIMVASTATIN- It helps by lowering the cholestrol production in blood, that accumulates on the blood vessel walls, which block blood flow to heart and brain.
4. ASPIRIN- They are basically blood thinners, decreasing the chance of clot ormation within the arteries.
5. CLOPIDOGREL- These medications are usually taken likewise with aspirin to prevent formation of blood clots in the blood vessels and permit its natural flow rate .   

Since the patient was given a strong combination of these drugs ,his body could easily accept and give a quick response feedback.