The changing face of transient ischaemic attacks

Abstract

TIAs predict stroke risk A transient ischaemic attack (TIA) is not a simple 'mini-stroke', but a major warning sign of an impending stroke that demands urgent attention. About 15-30% of all ischaemic strokes are preceded by TIAs 1-4. The estimated recurrent TIA and stroke risk at three months after a TIA is 17.3% 1 ; the risk of stroke is greatest immediately after a TIA, providing only a short window of opportunity for stroke prevention 2. 52% of all strokes during the first 7 days and 42% of all strokes during the first 30 days following a TIA do occur within the first 24 hours 2-5. Early and optimal treatment of TIA has been shown to be effective in prevention of recurrent The changing face of transient ischaemic attacks This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Current management of transient ischaemic attacks

“…Data from recent studies have confirmed that this indeed is a realistic goal, and have highlighted the importance of emergent evaluation and treatment of TIAs (9,10). This has led to a dramatic change, a virtual paradigm shift, in our approach to the acute management of TIAs, especially over the last two decades (11,12).…”