Transient ischemic attacks: a single institutional experience

Background: Transient ischemic attack (TIA) is a neurological emergency. About 15-30% of strokes are preceded by TIAs. We aimed to evaluate the risk factors developing TIAs, assess all patients with diffusion weighted MRIs, and to initiate early treatment to prevent completed strokes. Method: This cross-sectional observational study was conducted from December 1, 2018, to October 31, 2019. Eighty patients, who developed TIAs and who had attended the Rizgary Teaching Hospital’s emergency department and its neurology outpatients’ clinic at Erbil, Iraq, were enrolled consecutively. All patients underwent thorough medical and neurological examinations, the ABCD2 score was calculated in all patients, and an extensive battery of investigations, including an emergency brain CT scan and MRI with diffusion-weighted images (DWI) were done. After securing the diagnosis of TIA, all patients were treated with antiplatelets or anticoagulants in addition to other medications, as needed . Results: The mean age of patients was 56.63 (±SD of 11.6 years). The most common risk factor was hypertension (53.7%) followed by diabetes and smoking. The commonest presentation was acute hemiparesis followed by hemianesthesia. DWI sequences demonstrated acute ischemic infarctions in 15 (18.7%) patients . 1 Assistant Professor of Community Medicine, Shekhan Technical College of Health, Duhok olytechnic University. Corresponding author: masood.abdulkareem@dpu.edu.krd 2 Medical Research Center, Hawler Medical University, Kurdistan Region, Iraq Verified email 3 Anaesthesia department, Medical Technical Institute, Erbil Polytechnic University. . Article information Article history: Received June 8, 2020 Accepted July 2, 2020 Available online December 23, 2020 Mosul Journal of Nursing, Vol. 8, No. 2, 2020 ( 942-952 ) 250 Conclusion: TIAs targeted people younger than expected by other international studies. DWI of the brain is more sensitive than conventional brain MRI sequences in detecting the acute ischemic changes in patients with TIAs.