Few get prompt care after mini-stroke
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Most people don’t seek medical attention immediately after suffering a “mini-stroke,” a new UK study shows.
Symptoms of a mini-stroke, known medically as a transient ischemic attack (TIA), are exactly the same as those of a full-fledged stroke, but resolve within 24 hours. While TIAs in themselves cause no long-term problems, they substantially increase the likelihood of having a full-fledged stroke soon afterwards.
“Because they don’t cause any long-term problems themselves, people are inclined often to ignore them or instead put them down to ‘one of those things,’” Dr. Matthew F. Giles of Oxford University’s Stroke Prevention Research Unit in London, the study’s lead author, told Reuters Health. “That can be a dangerous action.”
Giles and his team interviewed 241 patients who had experienced TIAs. While 107, or 44 percent, sought medical attention within hours of the event, only 24, or 10 percent, went to an emergency department for care. An additional 107 patients put off seeking treatment for a day or longer.
People whose symptoms lasted for an hour or more were twice as likely to seek emergency treatment, while those who were at higher risk of stroke also were more likely to get emergency care. However, people whose TIAs occurred on a Friday, a weekend or a holiday were more likely to delay care.
This makes it clear that few people recognize the need for urgent medical attention after TIA, Giles and his colleagues write in the May issue of the medical journal Stroke released online March 30. But recent research has shown that people face a 10 percent risk of having a stroke in the first week after a TIA, and a 15 percent to 20 percent risk of stroke in the first month.
Emergency care is essential, Giles said, because physicians can prescribe blood-thinning medications such as aspirin and drugs for treating high blood pressure and high cholesterol if necessary, all of which will prevent stroke. Doctors can also check patients for narrowing in the carotid arteries leading to the brain, which increases stroke risk and can be treated surgically.
Giles pointed out that his study was performed in Oxfordshire, a relatively wealthy, educated area where people would be likely to understand the symptoms of TIA and stroke and readily seek treatment. “In sort of poorer, depressed areas it would be likely that people would act less quickly.”
SOURCE: Stroke, online March 30, 2006.
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