Etiology, duration, and prognosis of transient ischemic attacks: an analysis from the German Stroke Data Bank.
BACKGROUND
A transient ischemic attack (TIA) has been arbitrarily defined as a focal cerebral ischemic deficit lasting less than 24 hours.


OBJECTIVE
To determine if TIAs of short duration (<1 hour) and long duration (1 hour to <24 hours) differ from each other and from ischemic stroke (IS).


METHODS
Inception cohorts of 1429 patients with acute TIAs and 5206 patients with IS were prospectively documented in 15 German medical centers with neurology departments and acute stroke units. Outcome after 3 months was assessed in 72.8% of the patients with TIAs.


METHODS
Risk factor distribution, etiology, and prognosis of TIAs and IS.


RESULTS
Patients with TIAs, especially those with symptoms lasting less than 1 hour, were significantly more likely to have a history of TIAs and less likely to have diabetes mellitus, arterial hypertension, or atrial fibrillation at admission compared with those with IS. Cardioembolic etiologies were less frequent and unknown etiologies more frequent among patients with TIAs than those with IS. Functional outcome and mortality did not differ significantly in patients with TIAs of different durations.


CONCLUSIONS
This study demonstrates differences in comorbidity and etiology among patients with TIAs of different durations and IS.
Weimar
Christian
C
Department of Neurology, University of Essen, Essen, Germany. stroke.med@uni-essen.de
Kraywinkel
Klaus
K
Rödl
Joachim
J
Hippe
André
A
Harms
Lutz
L
Kloth
Antje
A
Diener
Hans-Christoph
HC
D000368:Aged; D001281:Atrial Fibrillation / Q000150:complications*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D015897:Comorbidity; D016208:Databases, Factual; D048909:Diabetes Complications; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000150:complications*; D002546:Ischemic Attack, Transient / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D012307:Risk Factors; D013997:Time Factors