Brain hemorrhage called paralytic stroke by layman
Ailment may result from exertion or from coughing or sneezing
By Jane Stafford, Science Service medical writer
WASHINGTON – Brain hemorrhage, from which President Roosevelt died, is the commonest of what physicians call “cerebral accidents.” The layman calls it a stroke or apoplexy or a paralytic stroke.
High blood pressure and blood vessel disease are the chief causes of the condition. The exact mechanism by which conditions occur, such as those leading to death from brain hemorrhage or from coronary artery trouble, is not known.
These blood vessels are where the strain comes, and undoubtedly many physicians, knowing the strain Mr. Roosevelt had been under, had been expecting that blood vessels of either heart or brain would give way.
The immediate cause of brain hemorrhage is a rapid rise in blood pressure. This may result from severe muscular exertion or from coughing or sneezing. The immediate sequel of the hemorrhage into the brain is the apoplectic seizure.
Most patients are said to have premonitory symptoms, as dizziness or a sense of pressure in the head. The seizure may, however, occur suddenly in a person in apparently perfect health.
Although paralysis often follows hemorrhage, there is no evidence that infantile paralysis has any connection with the kind following apoplectic seizure. Indirectly it might add some strain through the burden of getting about under physical handicap.