74-year-old male with a history of hypertension and smoking, is having dinner with his wife when he develops sudden onset of difficulty speaking, with drooling from the left side of his mouth, and weakness in his left hand

Answer:

1. Pathophysiology of a stroke
2. Smoking increased the risk of stroke. Certain ethnicities are more at risk for stroke. Also, the patients age puts him at risk.
3. Risk factors of stroke

Step-by-step explanation

1. Strokes can happen when a blood vessel in the brain becomes blocked (ischemic) or when a blood vessel bursts or breaks (hemorrhagic) cutting of the blood supply to different parts of the brain. This causes certain parts of the brain to die (sometimes only temporarily if blood flow is resumed quick enough). As we all know the brain is what controls the body. When certain pieces of the brain lose blood supply and essentially "die" they are no longer to send the messages to other parts of our body. The message center is destroyed to simplify. Cognitively the impulse is there but it unable to be sent to the part of the body that needs to perform the task. Therefore, the musculoskeletal system is affected as well. The components of the musculoskeletal system are intact, but the impulses to use them are absent.
2. The scenario does not present the ethnicity of the patient, but African Americans are more susceptible to strokes (50 percent more likely). Since this patient is over 55 and a smoker those are additional risk factors. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/stroke/symptoms-causes/syc-20350113
3. . African americans are more likely to have strokes then other ethnicities because they have more risk factors. Per the numbers African Americans have higher percentages of high blood pressure and obesity than other ethnicities. The deficits the patient has will indicate what portion of the brain is the stroke occurred in.