periventricular white matter

[sammi123]

Female-44years old. My MRI images of the brain reveal a few small focal signal abnormalities seen within the periventricular white matter on my left side of brain. The right side of my body is weak. Is it likely that I'll have a stroke soon or in the near future? If so, what are the causes? I want to know how prevent a stroke or any other disaster related to the white matter from happening to me. Thank you

[sammi123]

Thank you

[DrKalraMD]

Hi, here is some quoted literature from website http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroke. Stroke is a medical emergency and can cause permanent neurological damage, complications and death if not promptly diagnosed and treated. It is the third leading cause of death in the United States.
It is the leading cause of adult disability in the United States and Europe. It is the number two cause of death world-wide and may soon become the leading cause of death worldwide. Risk factors for stroke include advanced age, hypertension (high blood pressure), previous stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA), diabetes, high cholesterol, cigarette smoking, atrial fibrillation, the contraceptive pill, migraine with aura, and thrombophilia (a tendency to thrombosis), patent foramen ovale and several rarer disorders. High blood pressure is the most important modifiable risk factor of stroke.

Given the disease burden of stroke, prevention is an important public health concern. Primary prevention is a lot less effective than secondary prevention (as judged by the number needed to treat to prevent one stroke per year).Recent guidelines detail the evidence for primary prevention in stroke. Because stroke may indicate underlying atherosclerosis, it is important to determine the patient's risk for other cardiovascular diseases such as coronary heart disease. Conversely, aspirin prevents against first stroke in patients who have suffered a myocardial infarction.
The most important modifiable risk factors for stroke are high blood pressure and atrial fibrillation. Other modifiable risk factors include high blood cholesterol levels, diabetes, cigarette smoking[17][18] (active and passive), heavy alcohol consumption and drug use, lack of physical activity, obesity and unhealthy diet. Alcohol use could predispose to ischemic stroke, and intracerebral and subarachnoid hemorrhage via multiple mechanisms (for example via hypertension, atrial fibrillation, rebound thrombocytosis and platelet aggregation and clotting disturbances). The drugs most commonly associated with stroke are cocaine, amphetamines causing hemorrhagic stroke, but also over-the-counter cough and cold drugs containing sympathomimetics.