[Dizziness, tiredness and the risk of a stroke]

In a recent study, Bos et al. (JAMA 2007) showed that patients with nonfocal transient neurological attacks (TNA) have a higher risk of major vascular disease, comparable to patients with focal TNAs. This may prompt GPs to take a more active approach when dealing with patients experiencing short-lasting attacks of dizziness, paraesthesia and weakness. However, the category of nonfocal TNAs in the abovementioned study was very broad, and subgroup analysis for specific symptoms was not possible. Moreover, a third of nonfocal TNAs consisted of loss of consciousness or decreased consciousness, which might be responsible for the heightened risk of cerebrovascular accident. Also, a quarter of patients with nonfocal TNA had not presented their symptoms to a physician and reported the symptoms during a follow-up meeting, leaving room for recall bias. Since symptoms like dizziness are very frequent among elderly patients and nonfocal TNAs are difficult to recognize, both physicians and education campaigns should be careful not to arouse anxiety without good reason.