Warning signs often occur hours or days before a stroke

Nearly one in eight patients who have an ischaemic stroke have a transient ischaemic attack (TIA) at some point in the previous seven days, according to a study published this week, indicating the need to treat TIA as a medical emergency to improve the prevention of subsequent stroke.

The study, which looked at data on 2416 patients who presented with a recent ischaemic stroke, showed that 549 (23%) had a …