Study: ‘Mini-Stroke’ Increases Death Rates

People who have a “mini-stroke” don’t have lasting damage from it. But they do have a 20% higher risk of death in the next 9 years, a new study finds. The study included 22,157 adults who had a prior hospital stay for a transient ischemic attack (TIA). Researchers used public records to track deaths in the next 9 years. They compared the TIA group with expected survival rates for the overall population in the same age groups. Among people who had a TIA, 91.5% were still alive after a year. That’s a bit lower than the 95% expected survival. After 5 years, 67% were alive, compared with the expected 77%. Older TIA patients and those with other conditions had larger increases in death rates. The journal Stroke published the study online. USA Today and HealthDay News wrote about it November 10.