The risk of a major stroke within a week of a minor stroke (or transient ischemic attack) is substantial, according to a report to appear in the December issue of the British journal The Lancet Neurology.
The lowest risk of having a subsequent stroke was among patients treated as emergency cases in specialist stroke units.
Studies have reported conflicting risk of having a major stroke after a minor stroke, with results ranging from no increased risk to 12.8 percent greater risk.
Researchers from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom combined results from 18 groups of 10126 patients overall, and showed that the risk of a major stroke after a minor stroke is a “substantial” 5.2 percent at 7 days. This means one in 20 patients who have a minor stroke will have a major one within a week.
“Although the individual results of the studies are inconsistent, this study shows that this can be almost fully explained by differences in study method, setting, and treatment. Further, they found that the lowest risks of stroke were seen in studies of emergency treatment in specialist stroke units (0-9%) and the highest in population-based studies without urgent treatment (11%),” according to a press release on the study.
The authors emphasized that “urgent treatment in specialist units” may reduce the risk of subsequent strokes.
Jeff Raymond, Medical Writer