• The 7-day risk of completed ischemic stroke after TIA is 5%.
• The use of reliable stroke prediction tools are potentially invaluable in guiding the degree of urgency that one applies to the management of TIA patients.
• Accuracy of the ABCD² Score, considered to be the most-refined tool of its kind, was recently again evaluated.
• This 7-point scale assigns risk based on 5 factors: Age > 60 (1 pt.), BP > = 140/90 (1 pt), Clinical features - weakness (2 pts), speech impairment w/o weakness (1 pt); Duration  >=60 min (2 pts), 59 to 10 min (1 pt); Diabetes (1 pt).
• The study found that the discriminatory power of the ABCD² Score may best be applied when used in patients at low risk for an early, disabling ischemic stroke.     

References

• Asimos et al. ABCD² Score for Predicting Early Ischemic Stroke. Annals of Emerg Med. 55(2); 201-10: Feb 2010.