Does ABCD2 Score Below 4 Allow More Time to Evaluate Patients With a Transient Ischemic Attack?

Background and Purpose-The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommends that patients with a transient ischemic attack and ABCD(2) score >= 4 and those with > 2 transient ischemic attacks within 1 week be admitted for urgent complete etiologic evaluation within 24 hours and that those with an ABCD(2) score < 4 be evaluated less urgently within 1 week. Methods-Using data from 1176 patients with a definite or possible transient ischemic attack or minor stroke included in the SOS-TIA registry (January 2003 to June 2007), we studied the usefulness of the conventional ABCD(2) score cutoff as well as the NICE criteria for urgent admission to a stroke unit defined as presence of symptomatic internal carotid artery stenosis >= 50%, symptomatic intracranial artery stenosis >= 50%, or major cardiac source of embolism. Results-Among 697 patients with an ABCD(2) score < 4, 20% required immediate consideration for emergency treatment (eg, symptomatic internal carotid stenosis >= 50% in 9.1% of patients, symptomatic intracranial stenosis in 5.0%, atrial fibrillation in 5.9%, other major cardiac source of embolism in 2.1%) in comparison to 31.6% of 497 patients with an ABCD(2) score >= 4. The sensitivity and specificity of ABCD(2) score >= 4 or NICE criteria for discriminating between patients requiring admission or not were < 62% with low positive predictive values (< 30%) and high negative predictive values (>= 80%). Conclusions-One in 5 patients with an ABCD(2) score < 4 had high-risk disease requiring urgent treatment decision-making. When triaging on an ABCD(2) score, we recommend adding systematic carotid ultrasound (or a default angiographic CT scan) and electrocardiography within 24 hours before postponing complete transient ischemic attack evaluation. (Stroke. 2009; 40: 3091-3095.)