RISK FACTORS AND ETIOLOGY OF TRANSIENT ISCHEMIC ATTACKS IN PATIENTS WITH BRAIN INFARCTION

Introduction: transient ischemic attacks (tia) are warnings of future stroke. there is no difference in risk factors, pathophysiology and prevention between tia and brain infarction.methods: consecutive patients with brain infarction admitted to ghaem hospital, mashhad, northeastern iran, were enrolled in a prospective study during 2006.diagnosis of ischemic stroke was established by a neurologist who also obtained history of tia and vascular risk factors. all of the stroke patients underwent a standard battery of diagnostic investigations and etiology of ischemic stroke was determined by the practical iranian criteria classification. fisher’s exact test was used for statistical analysis.results: 348 stroke patients (186 women, 162 men) were studied. history of tia was present in 42 patients (29 women, 13 men), i.e. 12% of the stroke patients. tia was more common in women (df=1, p=0.02). the frequency of hypertension, diabetes and ipsilateral carotid stenosis was not significantly different between patients with history of tia and other stroke patients (p=0.87, p=0.64 and p=0.61, respectively). hypercholesterolemia and smoking were significantly more frequent in stroke patients with history of tia (p=0.011 and p=0.014, respectively). the frequency of tia was not significantly different among patients with lacunar, versus large vessel territory infarcts(df=1, p=0.84). there was no significant difference in the frequency of various stroke etiologies in patients with and without history of tia (df=4, p=0.61).conclusions: stroke patients with history of tia have vascular risk factors similar to other stroke patients. a positive history of tia does not affirm any specific etiology of ischemic stroke.