Brain imaging in TIA and

Over a five year period, 1438 patients were referred either to the hospital or to the study cUnic with a suspected TIA or minor stroke (defined on assessment as a score of < 3 on the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale [NIHSS]) (Wityk et at 1994) (Fig. 10.1). Of these, a pre-scan diagnosis of definite or possible TIA was made in 405 patients (46% male, mean age 74 years), and definite or possible minor stroke in 414 patients (54% male, mean age 76 years). Overall, 97% underwent brain imaging for definite or possible events (699 CT, 93 MRI). 

The American Heart Association has recently moved to redefine transient ischentic attack (TIA) in a manner similar to cardiac angina, as a transient episode of neurological dysfunction caused by focal brain, spinal cord, or retinal ischemia, withoutacute infarction [92], Previously, it had been known as an acute neurologic deficit of presumed vascular etiology that resolves within 24 h, but a growing body of evidence showed that the definition was too broad and included many DW images-defined infarcts that had missed the window for intervention. 

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