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Topic Overview
What is a transient ischemic attack (TIA)?
Transient ischemic attacks are often called mini-strokes because they are similar to a stroke in how they affect your vision, speech, and behavior. For example, your speech may become slurred, or you may not be able to move one side of your body. Unlike a stroke, however, the symptoms of a TIA are temporary and usually end after 10 to 20 minutes.
Although the symptoms may go away quickly, a TIA needs to be treated as an emergency—as symptoms occur, you have no way of knowing whether they are from a stroke or TIA, and a TIA is a warning signal that a stroke may soon follow.
What causes a transient ischemic attack?
A TIA is caused by a blood clot that temporarily blocks blood flow to the brain. The clot may form in an artery in the brain, or it may develop in another part of the body, travel through the bloodstream, and block an artery that supplies blood to the brain. Within minutes of the blockage, brain cells will be affected and cause symptoms in the parts of the body controlled by those cells. Once the clot dissolves, blood flow is restored, and the symptoms go away. If the blood clot does not dissolve, a stroke will occur.
Hardening of the arteries, heart attack, and abnormal heart rhythms are the most common causes of such blood clots.
See an illustration of a transient ischemic attack.
What symptoms will I have?
Symptoms of a TIA come on suddenly. They can vary depending on which part of the brain is affected. Common symptoms include one or more of the following:
Numbness, tingling, or weakness in or inability to move a part or all of one side of the body, such as the face, arm, and leg
Brief vision changes, such as blurring, dimness, blurring, or double vision, or a loss of vision that seems like a shade pulled down over the eyes
Difficulty speaking or understanding speech
Nausea or vomiting
Dizziness, clumsiness, staggering, or fainting. You may also have a drop attack, which is a sudden loss of strength in the legs.
Severe headache
It is not always easy to recognize a TIA because you may think your symptoms are caused by aging or other conditions. In addition, symptoms usually disappear by the time you go to a doctor. In some people, however, symptoms can last up to 24 hours.
What kinds of tests will I need?
You need to be seen immediately by a doctor if you have had or are having a TIA. The doctor will check you for stroke and to see if there is another cause for your symptoms, such as low blood sugar, seizure, migraine headache, or Bell's palsy .
You may need:
A computed tomography (CT) scan of your head. A CT scan is a type of X-ray that can produce detailed pictures of structures inside of the body.
A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test, which provides pictures of organs and structures inside the body. It produces these images by using a magnetic field and pulses of radio-wave energy.
Tests to determine if the TIA was caused by hardening of the arteries.
Tests for your heart, if heart problems are suspected to be the cause of the TIA.
What kind of treatment will I need?
If you have a TIA, you may be given medications that prevent blood clots from forming, such as aspirin or warfarin.
You may need surgery to reopen a narrowed artery. This type of surgery is called a carotid endarterectomy. It relieves the symptoms caused by poor blood flow to the brain, helps prevent another TIA, and reduces the risk of stroke.
What increases my risk of a TIA?
Age. Most TIAs occur between the ages of 60 and 70.
Sex. Men have a higher risk than women, especially men over 60.
Race. Black and Hispanic men have a higher risk than those of other races.
Family and medical history. If one of your family members has had a stroke or TIA, or if you have had a previous TIA, you are at higher risk.
Some diseases, such as high blood pressure , Diabetes , hardening of the arteries , and sickle cell disease , can increase your risk of having a TIA.
Smoking, high cholesterol , using birth control pills, excessive use of alcohol, and using cocaine also make it more likely you will have a TIA.
