How to take care of a pt with TIA

[beachbutterfly]

I have a question;what kind of treatment do people with TIA get? When they arrive to the ER do they get the CT scan? Or they received prophylaxis in the form of aspirin,also is it safe to give them any sort of anticoagulant without determing the true cause of the mini-stroke as they call it,also is it to early to do the CT which in turn wont show any significant data since this is a pre-stroke and is it possible to determin the origin of it from CT scan? Thanks..

[PAERRN20]

CT of the head, ASA, check their blood sugar. Not much else you can do until you get the reading of the CT back. You wouldn't want to give anticoagulants to someone who is having a brain bleed.

[alem992]

First thing that happens is the NIHSS and then the CT SCAN. They would not receive any aspirin prior to getting the CT because they could have a hemorrhagic stroke. If they meet the critrea meaning a high enough number on the NIHSS and there is no evidence of bleeding , and their symptoms started less than 3hrs ago then they would get TPA. If there score is low, or they don't meet the critrea for receiving TPA then they would just be admitted and a complete work-up would be done, MRI, ECHO, DOPPLERs, X-Ray, Lipid profile, Dysphagia Screening and they would be put on aspirin and simvastatin. Hope this helps ...

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

medical treatments of diseases and conditions can be found online on these websites:

• family practice notebook (http://www.fpnotebook.com/index.htm)
  
  • http://www.fpnotebook.com/neuro/cv/trnsntischmcatck.htm
    

  [*]emedicine (http://emedicine.medscape.com/)

  • http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/794281-overview - transient ischemic attack