Each year, approximately 150,000 Canadians have a transient ischemic attack (TIA), sometimes known as a mini-stroke. New research published today in Stroke, the journal of the American Heart Association shows these attacks may not be transient at a…
Public education is needed about the symptoms and risks of mini-stroke, also called transient ischemic attack or TIA, according to the first large study on the topic, which is published in the May 13 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study found that only 9 percent of people could give the definition of a TIA or identify a symptom of TIA. TIA symptoms are the same as those for a regular stroke, but TIA symptoms resolve themselves within 24 hours.
When 29-year-old Eric Lange suddenly experienced several hours of mental confusion last July, physicians at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center naturally ordered brain scans and carotid artery studies in their first search for a cause. With the initial exams turning out OK, Eric’s neurologist pursued other clues and ended up finding a heart defect called a patent foramen ovale, or PFO. A blood clot was believed to have slipped through the defect and out of the normal route of circulation that would have filtered it in the lungs. Instead, the clot traveled to Eric’s brain and temporarily blocked the flow of blood, causing a transient ischemic attack, or TIA, which is similar to a stroke but it does not cause permanent brain damage.