Monday, August 17, 2009

TIA care in the right places does matter

They aren't strokes, exactly, but take a TIA seriously.

A transient ischemic attack "a brief episode of a given neurological abnormality that resolves on its own, and by definition, TIA sufferers recover completely within a few minutes (or a few hours, at the most)," according to the recent article stroke hospitals offer better care for TIA patients.

And not surprisingly, stroke hospitals (those with stroke units) appear to be better than [other] hospitals at doing this. This is probably due to the presence of stroke experts in their facilities, which guarantees that patients with TIAs undergo rapid and thorough testing. This was shown in a recent article in the Medical Journal of Australia.

So be sure you know the TIA symptoms and take them seriously. Don't let anyone you care about - hey, that should be everyone, right? - just shrug it off. TIAs can be signs of a even more serious events to come. If you can, get to a stroke center, as they are called in the U.S. You can find them here if you pick your ZIP Code, with a range of at least 25 miles, choose Type of Service and choose a Certified Program called Stroke (Primary Stroke Center).

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