ETNA: Edinburgh Transient and Neurological attack: A Cohort Study

Patients frequently present with minor neurological symptoms where a diagnosis of transient ischaemic attack (TIA) or minor stroke is difficult to make positively or to exclude reasonably. For these patients, clinicians are uncertain whether they should: (a) reassure most patients that their symptoms are benign; (b) treat most patients with antiplatelet or other vascular prevention; or (c) stratify stroke risk further using clinical features or brain imaging.

This is important because clinical diagnosis is difficult. Mis-diagnosis is not infrequent and leads to harm from preventable recurrent stroke and costs to health systems from extra care and legal liabilities.

All ETNA participants will receive an MRI scan and the study aims to establish the feasibility and methods for a larger study of diagnostic utility of MR brain imaging and estimate the effects of MRI on clinician decision making.

This study has been recruiting in the Emergency Dept, inpatient wards and TIA clinics since August 2018. We aim to recruit 270 participants and have almost reached our target!