i went to the er the other day and they said i might of had TIA i had another last night what should i do?

Answer 1

You have had a Trans Ischemic Attack (TIA). I am assuming that the ER diagnosis is correct you suffered from blurred or decreased vision in one eye, loss of muscle tone on one side of the face and/or momentary paralysis of an extremity (arm or leg) on one side of the body.
FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE GO BACK TO THE ER!! You are a walking time bomb for a serious stroke. Insist on having a dye laced MRI to highlight and abnormal aterial growth in the brain and a ultrasound of your coratid arteries in your neck (either one may be plugged closed). DO NOT allow them to send you home - I wonder about an ER that would do so given your initial diagnosis

Answer 2

Your question is an interesting one where there is plenty of discussion in the medical community. It has been some time since I read the recent literature on what was being done about TIA's these days. Here's what I found:

Independent predictors of stroke were age greater than 60 years, diabetes mellitus, TIA duration greater than 10 minutes, and TIA with weakness or speech impairment. However, these results have not been validated in a separate group of patients and do not provide guidance regarding shorter-term risk of stroke.

See link below for risk of inpending stroke based on a variety of factors for patients who presented with TIA's or possible TIA's. It uses a point based system to help establish what the short term likelihood of having a stroke in the next 7 days is. I think this should be very useful for you.
http://www.aafp.org/afp/20060915/poc.html

The journal article below evaluated the sources of where and if TIA's have a definable source. In fact, there are usually more than half of patients where a source is able to be determined. Therefore a full work-up looking for heart arrhythmias, carotid artery blockage, and arterial blockage in the crainium should be performed with patients who have TIA's.

Using a prospective hospital-based registry, 146 patients with transient ischaemic attack (TIA) were compared with 376 patients with minor first-ever ischaemic stroke with respect to the 3-month risk of subsequent vascular events, in order to clarify the distinctions between the disease entities. All patients were enrolled within 48 h of onset. The risk factor distribution for the two groups was comparable, except that the TIA patients had more previous TIAs. Large artery atherosclerosis (34%) and small vessel occlusion (32%) were the main aetiologies in the TIA group, whereas small vessel occlusion (49%) was the major cause in the stroke group. The 3-month risk of combined endpoints of stroke, myocardial infarction, and vascular death for TIA patients was higher than that for the minor stroke group (15.1% vs. 3.2%; hazard ratio 4.6, 95% confidence interval 2.3-9.3 in multivariate analysis). Large artery atherosclerosis and male sex were the other significant predictors. TIA may demand more urgent management than minor stroke. The fact that aetiology is a predictor, highlights the need for rapid diagnostic tests to establish pathogenesis.

A further recent article endorsed using anti-platlet medications such as aspirin and plavix or both. It did not find value by adding Warfarin (an anticoagulant) to the therapy. It concluded that using Warfarin with an INR of 3.0-4.0 was in fact potentially dangerous.

Another article showed significantly reduced risk in patients who were given an anti-cholesterol medication (commonly called 'statins' like Lipitor)

In short TIA's are potentially dangerous - they can lead to more lasting damage such as stroke. Not all TIA's lead to stroke, however. Refer to the chart of the link I provided - it gives some guidance about who is at risk and who is not. Regardless, you will probably benefit from being on an anticholesterol medication like Lipitor, aspirin (full adult dose), Plavix, and medication to be sure your blood pressure is always less than 140 systolic. Lastly with new symptoms you should go to the ER. You can never know yourself if this is a stroke or a TIA. Treatments can be provided if given immediately if this is a stroke. Presenting late excludes you from this treatment.

I hope this helps.

Good luck and God bless.

Answer 3

TIA is a warning for a stroke, you should go again and get more studies like MRA of neck, or at least an ultrasound of carotid arteries(may be you already had them).you should be taking aspirin or may be plavix.

Answer 4

in simple terms it is pre signs of having a stroke...