What is the prognosis following a TIA?
The reason we are so keen for the right people to see patients quickly, started on the right medications and controlling their vascular risk factors is the risk of recurrent stroke at 7 days is 10% or one in ten patients. Up to 30 days, the risk is between 12% and 15%. Certain clinical factors which may be features of your TIA i.e. whether you have had motor weakness, speech disturbance, how long it lasted, will determine how high that risk is.
Certain tests will tell us more about your risks. For example, was there a narrowing of the carotid, did the patient have an irregular heartbeat or was there evidence of stroke on the scan? Certain features on the scan might predict a slightly increased or lower risk and your stroke physician or neurologist should talk to you about that. As a standard, the seven day risk is 10%, but the more important thing for you to know is that the right treatment can reduce that risk by up to 80%.