Five-year prognosis of transient ischemic attack and transient global amnesia in a Finnish population

Introduction: Transient ischemic attack (TIA) often precedes ischemic stroke and, therefore, requires urgent treatment. In contrast, transient global amnesia (TGA) is a benign condition, though it often causes concern among patients and their relatives. The longitudinal prognoses of TIA and TGA in Finland have not been reported recently. Here, we studied the 5-year prognosis of TIA and TGA regarding stroke, recurrent TIA, and mortality. Methods: The original study population comprised 293 patients with TIA and 56 patients with TGA diagnosed at Kuopio University Hospital (KUH) in 2017. Baseline data were collected from the hospital records at KUH in 2017. The above-mentioned 5-year outcomes, as well as cardiovascular events were studied using national registers provided by Findata. Results: The risk of recurrent stroke within 5 years of the index event was 29.4% (n=86) after TIA and 7.1% (n=4) after TGA. Among the patients with TIA as the index event, ABCD2 score ≥4 correlated with higher risk of stroke (p=0.04). Recurrent TIA occurred in 29.0% (n=85) of patients in the TIA group; none of the patients with TGA experienced TIA. Regarding mortality, 25.9% (n=76) of patients with TIA and 3.6% (n=2) with TGA died during the follow-up period. Vascular cause of death occurred in 10.2% of patients with TIA and in none with TGA. Conclusions: Patients with TIA had a significantly higher risk of stroke, recurrent TIA, and death than patients with TGA. Factors associated with cardiovascular outcomes require more research to prevent recurrent events after TIA.