Long-term prognosis after transient ischemic attacks
- 29 January 2009
- journal article
- Published by Hindawi Limited in Acta Neurologica Scandinavica
- Vol. 63 (3), 156-168
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0404.1981.tb00768.x
Abstract
A retrospective follow-up study of 243 patients with transient ischemic attacks (TIA) is reported. The long-term mortality of the patients was higher than that of the corresponding general population. It is demonstrated that the excess mortality over the whole period of observation, irrespective of the age and sex of the patients, can be characterized by a single figure expressing the slope of the curve obtained by semilogarithmic plotting of the ratios of observed to expected survival against time. The use of this numerical expression--in the present series -0.04--will thus facilitate comparisons of the survival of TIA patients drawn from different populations. Unfavourable prognostic factors were: carotid TIA, associated extracerebral disease, and a history of hypertension. Fatal strokes, being four times as frequent as expected according to published incidence figures, accounted for 20% of the deaths, heart disease 38%. Stroke deaths tended to occur earlier than cardiac deaths. The results support the concept that most TIAs, like strokes, are incidents in the progressive course of a generalized vascular disease. The finding of a constant excess mortality over the years following a TIA makes it difficult to recommend a discontinuation of prophylactic therapy at any particular time.Keywords
This publication has 11 references indexed in Scilit:
- Clinical features and long-term follow-up of patients with reversible ischemic attacks (RIA)Acta Neurologica Scandinavica, 2009
- Transient ischemic attacksNeurology, 1978
- Incidence of stroke in Frederiksberg, Denmark.Stroke, 1977
- Testing survival under right censoring and left truncationBiometrika, 1977
- Transient ischemic attacksNeurology, 1977
- Prognosis in Patients with Transient Ischemic AttacksStroke, 1973
- Long-Term Prognosis of Transient Cerebral Ischemic AttacksStroke, 1971
- Prognosis in patients with transient cerebral ischemic attacksNeurology, 1968
- A generalized Wilcoxon test for comparing arbitrarily singly-censored samplesBiometrika, 1965
- Nonparametric Estimation from Incomplete ObservationsJournal of the American Statistical Association, 1958