Mini-Strokes Have Major Impact on Mortality

Just for argument's sake, let's say that you are unlucky enough to notice the sudden onset of a change in your neurologic function.  In other words, you think that you've just had a stroke.  You may not remember the 3 agencies you'd get rid of but at least you remember the FAST (face, arm, speech, time) symptoms, right?  You're about ready to somehow dial 911 when you notice everything is back to normal.  Now what do you do?

If you're like most people, you ignore what just happened, return to what you were just doing, and forget about the event.  Wrong choice!  In a study released online yesterday prior to publication in January 2012, the authors followed for 9 years 22,157 adults hospitalized for a transient ischemic attack (TIA) and noted that survival did not change much for those under 50yo compared to age matched controls who had not had a stroke.

However, for older patients who had sustained a TIA compared to those who hadn't, their survival rate was lower by almost 4% at the end of the 1st year, 13% after 5yrs, and 20% after 9yrs.  Your odds of surviving are worse if you've already been hospitalized for a stroke or suffer from congestive heart failure or atrial fibrillation.

Does this mean we should just hang it up and wait for the Grim Reaper?  Nah.  Instead, we should be doing everything we can to avoid that first TIA!  And if we have the bad luck to have had a TIA, then we need to talk w/our family doc about how to prevent a second TIA or worse, a full blown stroke.

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