Of 491 patients with transient ischemic attack (TIA), or minor stroke, recurrent strokes happened within 48 hours, according to Canadian researchers who published their study online in "Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association." However, the study's authors reported that a full 17.5 hours typically elapsed after the onset of TIA before patients underwent Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), the gold standard for diagnosing acute stroke. This was compared to a median interval of 5.5 hours between the onset of a minor stroke and Computed Tomography (CT) scans.
According to MedPage Today, lead author Shelagh B. Coutts, MD, ChB and colleagues pointed out that a quick assessment of the risk of a follow-up stroke is imperative. An American Heart Association/American Stroke Association scientific statement released in 2009 named the MRI as the preferred test for evaluating TIA patients but CT scanners are more widely available in emergency departments in the U.S.
Coutts said that waiting for patients to stabilize over 24 hours misses the patients at highest risk. The researchers also suggested that using motor or speech symptoms to diagnose TIA could be outdated.
