St Emlyn’s - February 06, 2021 - By Simon Carley
“We see a lot of patients in the ED with a history of what sounds very much like a transient ischaemic event (TIA). By definition the patient will have had resolution of their symptoms/signs and so there is no apparent need for immediate intervention, but we also know that a TIA may be precursor to a larger and thus more serious stroke. In some settings the ABCD2 score is used to risk stratify patients into those who are safe to go home and to those requiring urgent investigation or even admission. However, the ABCD2 score is not perfect and in 2014 a Canadian group prospectively derived a risk score that hoped to improve on current models. This Canadian TIA score has now been validated in a paper published in the BMJ this week...
The bottom line
The Canadian TIA score offers advantages over current ABCD scoring systems. We should consider how this might affect patient management pathways with colleagues in related specialities.”