A few years ago, I tried to explain how nutrient rich blood was transferred from the artery to the brain. Due to a lack of knowledge, it was mostly rubbish. Except for one salient point – the blood had to be travelling at speed to pass through the porous sections of the artery wall.
Moving on, here is my best laypersons effort. I know the system is three dimensional, but I will use one dimension for ease.
Here goes.
A porous section of the artery wall is in close contact with the brain wall. When an arterial pulse arrives, it rushes blood through a porous section of the artery and it sits as a smear against the brain wall. In an action which I do not understand, brain cells transfer the blood to the areas of the brain which is nourishes and controls.
And you know what this means. When a clot occurs it will affect brain cells in touch of the clot. Blood cells previously delivered will still be processed by the brain centimetres away. So a clot may not affect every function immediately. I have not seen anything about this in general stroke literature.
Angus.
