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(Stroke. 2009;40:e467.)
© 2009 American Heart Association, Inc.

Letters to the Editor

A Prospective Study Using the ABCD2 Score in Screening for Minor Stroke or Transient Ischaemic Attack in Referrals to a Fast Track Clinic

Gautamananda Ray, MD, MRCP; Fiona Wright, MRCP; David J. Stott, MD, FRCP Peter Langhorne, PhD, FRCP

Department of Stroke Medicine, Glasgow Royal Infirmary, Glasgow, UK

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

To the Editor:

We have read the impressive article recently published by Quinn et al ¹ regarding the prediction of noncerebrovascular diagnosis in the outpatient clinic using ABCD2 scores. The authors have demonstrated that there was a positive association between increasing ABCD2 score and cerebrovascular diagnosis. Although the ABCD2 score has been developed as a prognostic tool and to aid risk stratification after a transient ischemic attack (TIA), ² it has been suggested that part of its value is diagnostic. This was a retrospective study with a large number of patients. The authors have suggested that prospective studies examining diagnosis and outcomes of patients triaged with ABCD2 score could help better define the use of the scale in clinical practice.

We performed a prospective audit of 75 consecutive new patients attending the weekly fast track TIA clinic in the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. All had their ABCD2 scores checked and calculated on first clinic visit. A final diagnosis of stroke or TIA was made on clinical grounds (supported by neuroimaging) by independent physicians. The mean age of the patients was 62.1 years (standard deviation 12.3) and there were 30 males. Referrals were from General Practitioners (n=56), Emergency Department (n=11) and other sources (n=8); Forty three of 75 patients (57.3%) were confirmed to have a diagnosis of stroke or TIA. The median ABCD2 score for diagnosis of stroke or TIA was 4 and for noncerebrovascular diagnosis was 2. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for the ABCD2 score for diagnosis of a . . . [Full Text of this Article]