Long-term prognosis after transient ischemic attack and stroke

Long-term prognosis after transient ischemic attack and stroke 

In the same way that data on the short-term risk of stroke following TIA are essential for informing the early management of patients, data on the medium-term (one to five years) and long-term (five years and beyond) prognosis are required to counsel patients and direct secondary prevention. 

Medium- and long-term stroke risks after a transient ischemic attack 

A total of 60 eligible papers were identified 22 were observational studies of patients receiving specific treatment 32 were observational studies, not based on specific treatments 6 were randomized controlled trials. No studies adhered to all six methodological principles. When the principles were relaxed to include only an inception cohort with adequate reporting and analysis of censored patients and appropriate endpoints, only two reports met these criteria, both from the Oxfordshire Community Stroke Project (OCSP 184 patients, follow-up over 3.7 years) (Dennis et al. 1989, 1990). 

Since the above review, two further high-quality, prospective, population-based studies of the medium-term prognosis of TIA have been published, one from Soderhamn, Sweden (97 patients, follow-up over three years) (Terent 1990) and the other from Perugia, Italy (94 patients, follow-up over nine years) (Ricci et al. 1998). The mean age of patients in all three cohorts was 69 years. 

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