Introduction: Patients who have suffered a transient ischemic attack (TIA) have a high risk of undergoing a severe vascular event. Most of them do not receive early attention and cannot benefit from an adequate diagnosis and treatment.
Aims: The aim of this study is to identify the clinical factors that predict the appearance of a new vascular event in these patients.
Patients and methods: We conducted a prospective study of 104 TIA patients, who had been given attention during the first 24 hours after the onset of symptoms, for a mean follow up time of 12.6 months.
Results: The incidence rates of strokes, ischemic heart disease, peripheral arteriopathy and death were 13, 6, 3 and 8%, respectively. Multivariate analysis identified the following aspects as independent predictors of new strokes: an age above 73 odds ratio (OR) 4.46 (CI 95%, 1.15 17.38) and an atherothrombotic aetiology OR 4.36 (CI 95%, 1.4413.18); and episodes of ischemic heart disease, a history of suffering from such heart disease OR 30.65 (CI 95%, 2.94319.17) and taking oral antidiabetic drugs OR 31.23 (CI 95%, 2.65368.74). Leukocytosis OR 11.21 (CI 95%, 1.25100.39) is linked to the deaths caused by vascular disorders, whereas an atherothrombotic aetiology OR 3.83 (CI 95%, 1.31 11.20) and being male OR 3.44 (CI 95%, 1.02 11.60) were seen to be predictors of the appearance of any vascular event.
Conclusions: Our findings showed that the risk of suffering severe vascular events after a TIA becomes higher. There are a number of useful clinical variables (age above 73, atherothrombotic aetiology, being male, taking oral antidiabetic drugs and leukocytosis) for identifying the patients at the highest risk.