Quick treatment following TIA or minor stroke could reduce the risk of a major stroke by 80 per cent
The risk of a major stroke occurring within the first month after a TIA or minor stroke is 10 per cent.
Research, funded by The Stroke Association and carried out by Professor Peter Rothwell and colleagues at the University of Oxford, has shown that the early initiation of treatment following a minor stroke or TIA reduces the risk of stroke by 80 per cent.
This could mean that almost 10,000 strokes could be prevented each year in the UK alone.
The research included a before and after study, with phase one running from April 2002 to September 2004 and phase two running from October 2004 to March 2007. The researchers looked at the effect of urgent assessment and immediate treatment in specialist clinics, compared with subsequent initiation of treatment in primary care in all patients with minor stroke or TIA who were not admitted directly to hospital.
In phase one of the study the median delay to assessment in a clinic was three days, while the median time to first prescription of treatment was 20 days. These values were reduced to one day for both assessment and prescription of treatment in phase two.
The researchers found that the 90-day risk of recurrent stroke in phase one patients was 10.3 per cent, while in phase two the risk was 2.1 per cent, meaning that immediate assessment and treatment in phase two reduced the risk of recurrence by 80 per cent.
The authors stated ‘Further follow up is required to determine long-term outcome, but these results have immediate implications for the service provision and public education about TIA and minor strokes'.
Source: The Lancet - Vol. 370, Issue 9596, 20 October
