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>I just thought that I would bring you up to date on Dorothy (my mother >in law) A few weeks ago I put in some questions about numbing and I only >got one response. So I don't know if this is just not common or what. >Anyway, I took her to the doctor here and he is having her go into the >hospital for an in-out visit to get some tests done. They want to do a >sonogram on her neck to check for TIA, which I found stands for >transient ischemic attack. The doctor is concerned that it might be >prestroke warnings. A TIA indicates that there is insufficient circulation to some portions of the brain bringing about 'stroke-like' symptoms. Sometimes TIAs are a pre-stroke events - they signal that a stroke will occur soon. An ultrasound of the carotid arteries is done to determine if there is any blockage due to the buildup of plaque (or cholesterol). If such a blockage is present then there are methods of treatment ranging from removal of those plaques through clearing the arteries during arteriography to removing a portion of one, or both, of the carotid arteries and replacing them with a Dacron graft. For obvious reasons, grafts are done on one carotid artery at a time. Numbness experienced on one side of the body usually signals arterial brain disease (hardening or blockage of the arteries of the brain) which can, but does not necessarily, lead to a stroke. ------- Hope this helps Mary Ann Ryan RN