[Study of the prognostic implications in patients with a transient ischaemic attack before the implementation of an agreed process of treatment in the health region of Lleida].

AIM

The transient ischemic attack (TIA) is a medical emergency because of their high risk of early recurrence. We study the evolution and management of patients with a TIA in our hospital before establishing a process management and treatment of this condition.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

We included 180 consecutive patients with suspected TIA attended in the emergency department of our hospital between January 2006 and March 2007. We collected clinical variables (risk factors, age, clinical symptoms, duration, ABCD2). Cases were reviewed by two neurologists to establish the correlation with the diagnosis. We established the risk of cerebral infarction after one year follow-up.

RESULTS

31% of patients were discharged home. There were differences between the two groups regarding age (82.9 Y 7.5 vs 70.53 Y 10.7 years); ABCD2 scale score (1.5 Y 5.32 vs 4.44 Y 1.37); and atrial fibrillation (27.5% vs 8.6%). There was much greater delay and lack of complementary explorations. During follow-up, 23% of patients not hospitalized had recurrent stroke versus 6.7% of hospitalized patients. Despite the fact that only age more than 80 years was identified as predictor of stroke recurrence (hazard ratio = 8,72; 95% CI = 2.4-31.74; p = 0.001) in regression multivariate model, the Kaplan-Meier model showed a higher risk of stroke recurrence among not admitted patients (p = 0.012).

CONCLUSION

In our area, the management of TIA patients in the emergency room had high impact on the evolution of these patients. A process management should be performed in order to achieve improvement in clinical praxis.