Differences in mortality and cardiovascular morbidity during a 3-year follow-up of transient ischemic attacks and minor strokes.

We prospectively followed 78 patients with transient ischemic attacks (TIAs) from the carotid artery territory and 45 patients with minor ischemic strokes for 3 years. The mean +/- SD age of the patients in the TIA group was 66.9 +/- 7.9 years compared with 68.8 +/- 6.7 in the minor stroke group. Mortality among the TIA patients was significantly higher than that among minor stroke patients (18 of 78 compared with two of 45, p less than 0.01); mortality in the minor stroke group was not higher than that in the background population, whereas mortality in the TIA group was almost twice as high. The most common cause of death in the TIA group was myocardial infarction, and morbidity due to myocardial infarction and new TIA was higher in the TIA group than in the minor stroke group (35 events compared with seven), whereas no difference was found regarding stroke (five strokes compared with eight). Preexisting vascular disease implied an increased risk of mortality and morbidity in the TIA group. We conclude that carotid-territory TIA indicates a worse prognosis than minor stroke as mortality is higher in TIA patients at the same preexisting vascular disease prevalence and stroke frequency.