Preventing stroke after transient ischemic attack

Stroke is a syndrome that can have either an ischemic or hemorrhagic cause.

It is now clear that transient ischemic attack and minor ischemic stroke are highly predictive of a subsequent disabling ischemic stroke within hours or days.

The critical clinical problems for physicians and nurse practitioners who evaluate these patients are to identify that the patient has had a stroke or transient ischemic attack and to stratify risk to determine if the patient requires rapid intervention to prevent recurrent stroke.