“Knowing certain CT scan findings are associated with future stroke could help accelerate care for high-risk patients.” -Dr. Jeffrey PerryDr. Jeffrey Perry’s team recently developed the Canadian TIA Score, which helps emergency physicians predict which patients with transient ischemic attack (TIA), commonly called mini-stroke, are at greatest risk of having a major stroke. After re-analyzing data from that study, they found certain CT scan findings can play an additional role in predicting future strokes.
According to the results published in Stroke, patients with TIA had a significantly greater risk of stroke within three months if their CT scan showed both acute ischemia (brain damage due to a recent blockage of blood flow) and chronic ischemia (brain damage due to a previous blockage of blood flow), or either one combined with the blockage of small arteries (microangiopathy). Patients who had all three of these CT findings had the greatest risk of subsequent stroke.
This is the first study to confirm the additional risk of stroke related to these findings. It also suggests that adding these CT findings to TIA decision tools would further improve physicians’ ability to predict a patient’s future stroke risk and provide care accordingly.
“Knowing certain CT scan findings are associated with future stroke could help accelerate care for high-risk patients.” -Dr. Jeffrey Perry, emergency physician and senior scientist at The Ottawa Hospital and professor at the University of Ottawa
Authors: Emma Ferguson, Krishan Yadav, Mukul Sharma, Marco L.A. Sivilotti, Marcel Émond, Ian G. Stiell, Grant Stotts, Jacques S. Lee, Andrew Worster, Judy Morris, Ka Wai Cheung, Albert Y. Jin, Wieslaw J. Oczkowski, Demetrios J. Sahlas, Heather E. Murray, Ariane Mackey, Steve Verreault, Marie-Christine Camden, Samuel Yip, Philip Teal, David J. Gladstone, Mark I. Boulos, Nicolas Chagnon, Elizabeth Shouldice, Clare Atzema, Tarik Slaoui, Jeanne Teitelbaum, Marie-Joe Nemnom, George A. Wells, Avik Nath and Jeffrey J. Perry
Funding: Canadian Institutes of Health Research. All research at The Ottawa Hospital is enabled by generous donors to The Ottawa Hospital Foundation.
The Ottawa Hospital is a leading academic health, research and learning hospital proudly affiliated with the University of Ottawa.
