Early stroke risk after a transient ischemic attack: can it be minimized?

See related article, pages 1717–1721. Early stroke recurrence after a transient ischemic attack (TIA) or minor stroke, as is becoming clearer lately, is much higher than previously reported. Recent studies found the overall risk to be as high as 8% within a week1 and up to 20% within a 3-month period.2,3 Along with these observations, numerous studies were published, suggesting different scores and methods aiming to identify those patients, which carry the highest risks. The study by Ois et al,4 published in this issue of Stroke, addresses this important issue as well. Yet, with the influx of data—some relating to TIAs only and some mixing TIAs and minor stroke and not all in full agreement—uncertainties have risen. Therefore, there is a need to put some order into the list of risk factors and, more importantly, into the various possible effective means of reducing this high risk.