TIAs differ from a 'stroke' in that they are considered Temporary. You have the symptoms of a stroke, but then they resolve. Both a stroke and a TIA come about from restricted blood flow to s portion of the brain. Depending on how big the area is, and the location, you could have something as simple as losing a memory to losing the use of an arm.
The difference between a TIA and 'stroke' is that the thrombus (clot) in a TIA is usually very small, and when it lodges in the artery/capillary in your brain, it shuts off the blood flow causing the symptoms you noted, but then it dissolves in short order, and blood flow is restored before any long lasting damage is done. A 'stroke' is the same thing except it shuts off blood supply long enough to cause irreparable damage. They are usually 'bigger clots' which cause them to take longer to dissolve and typically result in a larger area that is affected.
Think about an irrigation ditch which has several smaller ditches branching off. If you were to take a large 'clod' of dirt and toss it in one of the smaller ditches, it will roll along until it hits a branch point which is smaller than it is. It stops the water from continuing down that ditch and so the grass/crop which relies on that water suffers. If it blocked the flow long enough, the grass would die. That is a stroke.
A TIA is that same clod rolling along, getting stuck, but the water causes it to break up and dissolve. Yes, there was interruption of water to the grass, but it returned soon enough to keep it alive. Sometimes the grass can be 'stunned' and take a while to come back, but there are no long lasting effects.
The bigger the clod... the bigger the ditch it lodges in and therefore the more grass down stream, which is affected. It also makes it harder to be broken up/dissolved.
There is LOTS more information on this issue. This is the bare bones explanation of what is going on...
And yes... its what I do, so you can count on the information's accuracy.
