Dr. Gary Steinberg

So if there's an interruption to blood flow in any of those arteries, it can cause death of tissue in the spinal cord.

And that would result in a neurologic deficit, depending on where it is.

So if it occurred on the stomach side, that whole artery which supplies the two-thirds of the spinal cord on the stomach side, and it involved both sides of the spinal cord, it would cause paralysis of both legs and a partial sensory deficit would cause loss of pain and temperature because that's where those pathways are.

If the problem was on the backside of the cord, it would cause a problem potentially with a light touch sensation in the legs.

If it was below the cervical region and problems with what's called proprioception, that's the ability to recognize where your position of your joints is.

So it depends on where it is.

Some of the vascular problems I deal with actually do involve the spinal cord.

And you can develop other problems there.

For instance, you can have a direct connection between an abnormal artery and a vein in the spinal cord,

which doesn't cause a typical stroke by blocking blood flow, but it causes more of that venous problem we discussed where there's so much blood going directly from the artery to the vein, bypassing the capillaries that the veins become engorged.

The blood can't get out of the spinal cord and the spinal cord becomes congested and patients can present with problems walking or sensory problems.

If the spinal cord is involved in the cervical region up high, then the arms can be involved as well.

I see.

Yeah, that's a good question.

Yes, there is.

People who indulge or overindulge are at risk for developing stroke problems.

So it's another contributory factor.

which can promote problems with the blood vessels, clots, but also hemorrhage.

So it can make the blood vessels more fragile.

Another factor I see commonly in patients who develop aneurysms, those are blisters on the blood vessels in the brain, and they're like little balloons, and as they enlarge, they rupture just like a balloon can burst.