Managing Patients With Transient Ischemic Attack

Approximately 300,000 patients are treated annually in US emergency departments (EDs) for cerebral transient ischemic attack.1 Their management is variable.1,2 Created in 1975, the historical definition3—focal neurologic symptoms with a vascular cause, lasting less than 24 hours—no longer makes sense in a world of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), fibrinolytic treatment for ischemic stroke, and a better understanding of the ultraearly stroke risk after transient ischemic attack. The new definition of transient ischemic attack is "a transient episode of neurological dysfunction caused by focal brain, spinal cord, or retinal ischemia without acute infarction."4

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