This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 34/8/e141    most recent 01.STR.0000085294.27928.24v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Verro, P. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Verro, P. Pubmed/NCBI databases Medline Plus Health Information Stroke Transient Ischemic Attack

(Stroke. 2003;34:e141.)
© 2003 American Heart Association, Inc.

Research Report

Editorial Comment—Stroke Following TIA: Mounting Evidence of Early Risk

Davis Medical Center, University of California, Davis, Sacramento, California

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

TIAs are common events: a prevalence of 2.3% for a physician-rendered diagnosis of TIA was recently reported among US adults in a large community-based survey, equivalent to an estimated 4.9 million Americans carrying this diagnosis. An equal or greater number may have experienced an undiagnosed TIA.¹

Patients with TIAs are at significant short-term risk of stroke, ranging from 4% to 8% in the first month,² with an immediate risk of 5% in the first 2 days.³ Of those experiencing a stroke after a TIA, 21% will do so within the first month.⁴ Early evaluation of these patients seems prudent, but the urgency depends on an accurate determination of early risk since hospital admission of all TIA patients is likely to be financially prohibitive.⁵

The present report adds to previous data showing an early risk of stroke after TIA. The authors reanalyze data collected between 1981 and 1986 in the Oxfordshire Community Stroke Project (OCSP)⁶ which prospectively followed a population of patients presenting to their primary care provider with a TIA and/or completed stroke. The OCSP was a rigorously conducted study based on a clinical evaluation of each subject by a study neurologist with access to complete medical records throughout the course of the study.⁷ It is one of the few prospective studies of outcome following TIAs in nonhospitalized patients.⁸

The original OCSP study⁶ reported a moderate 4.4% risk of stroke in the first month following a recent TIA. In the present study, the authors recalculate this risk and suggest that . . . [Full Text of this Article]