If a TIA is suspected, you should be offered aspirin to take straight away. This helps to prevent a stroke. Even if the symptoms disappear while you're waiting for an ambulance to arrive, you still need to be assessed in hospital. You should be referred to see a specialist within 24 hours of the onset of your symptoms.
“The initial symptoms of stroke and TIA are indistinguishable. If you suspect that you or someone that you know is having a stroke or TIA, go to the hospital immediately, even if the symptoms are minor,” Streib said.
The American Heart Association guideline on TIA states that “it is reasonable to hospitalize patients with TIA if they present within 72 hours” if the predicted risk of stroke is high or an outpatient work-up cannot be completed within 2 days; however, this statement has a “C” level of evidence.
TIA symptoms
A TIA is a medical emergency, the same as a stroke. If you spot the signs of a TIA or stroke, call 999. Don't wait to see if the symptoms pass.
Although the symptoms of a transient ischaemic attack (TIA) resolve in a few minutes or hours without any specific treatment, you'll need treatment to help prevent another TIA or a full stroke from happening in the future. A TIA is a warning sign that you're at increased risk of having a full stroke in the near future.
Once your provider has determined the cause of the TIA , the goal of treatment is to correct the issue and prevent a stroke. Depending on the cause of the TIA , your provider may prescribe medication to reduce the tendency for blood to clot or may recommend surgery or a balloon procedure (angioplasty).
TIA does not cause widespread, permanent damage, but it may result in small pockets of dead brain cells. It is often called a “warning stroke” because it precedes 12% of all strokes, and 9-17% of TIA patients have a stroke within 90 days.
Call 999 immediately and ask for an ambulance if you or someone else has symptoms of a TIA or stroke. If a TIA is suspected, you will be offered aspirin to take straight away. This helps to prevent a stroke.
An MRI scan is most often used. This type of scan uses a strong magnetic field and radio waves to create an image of your brain.
A TIA starts suddenly, like ischemic strokes. The difference is that TIAs last only 2 to 30 minutes. Symptoms may include: Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body.
A transient ischemic attack (TIA) occurs when blood flow to a part of the brain stops for a brief time. A person will have stroke-like symptoms for up to 24 hours.
Although symptoms may disappear, TIA is known to be a signal that the patient is at risk for a full-blown stroke. TIA precedes approximately 23% of strokes, which often occur within 48 hours of the TIA. Therefore, early diagnosis and treatment of TIA is considered to be critical to reduce mortality and risk of stroke.
Dipyridamole and aspirin — Dipyridamole is a medication that may be given after a TIA to reduce the risk of stroke. It is often given as an extended-release form, combined with aspirin (aspirin-extended-release dipyridamole, brand name: Aggrenox). It is taken two times per day.
Symptoms of a TIA come on suddenly. You may feel perfectly fine one minute and then suddenly develop difficulty speaking or moving one side of your body. Sometimes the symptoms will come and go several times in a short period of time.
Diagnosis and Tests
The doctor will do some simple quick checks to test your vision, muscle strength, and ability to think and speak. Diagnostic testing consists of either a computed tomogram (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan of the brain and carotid arteries to determine the possible cause of the TIA.
In a previously reported study, 31% of TIA patients showed an acute infarction visualized by MRI including DWI. A strong association was found between neurological symptoms, speech dysfunction and weakness and an evidence of acute infarction by MRI including DWI (Al-Khaled and Eggers, 2013).
The blockage in the blood vessels responsible for most TIAs is usually caused by a blood clot that's formed elsewhere in your body and travelled to the blood vessels supplying the brain. It can also be caused by pieces of fatty material or air bubbles.
TIAs are often an early warning sign that a person is at risk of stroke. About 1 in 3 people who has a TIA goes on to experience a subsequent stroke. The risk of stroke is especially high within 48 hours after a TIA .
The only way to tell the difference between a ministroke and a stroke is by having a doctor look at an image of your brain with either a CT scan or an MRI scan. If you've had an ischemic stroke, it's likely that it won't show up on a CT scan of your brain for 24 to 48 hours. An MRI scan usually shows a stroke sooner.
Some people might have more than one TIA and it is possible to have several TIAs in a short space of time (for example, several TIAs within a day).
However, mounting evidence suggests that an MRI within 1 to 2 days of a TIA could spot evidence of a stroke that may disappear in time. MRIs can detect tissue damage even when symptoms are temporary. The sophisticated imaging technique can detect stroke lesions that may become less apparent quickly.
How long you stay in the hospital depends on your symptoms and the treatment received. The average amount of time to stay in the hospital after a TIA is 2 to 3 days.
Neurologists were more likely to diagnose transient ischemic attack based on clinical features including negative symptoms or speech deficits.