Predictors of pneumonia in acute stroke patients admitted to a neurological intensive care unit.

Objective: To determine independent clinical predictors of stroke-associated pneumonia (SAP) that are available in all patients on day of hospital admission.

Methods: We studied 236 patients with acute ischemic stroke admitted to the neurological intensive care unit at our university hospital. Risk factors of SAP and of non-responsivity of early-onset pneumonia (EOP; onset within 72 hours after admission) to initial antibacterial treatment were analyzed.

Etiology, duration, and prognosis of transient ischemic attacks: an analysis from the German Stroke Data Bank.

Context: A transient ischemic attack (TIA) has been arbitrarily defined as a focal cerebral ischemic deficit lasting less than 24 hours.

Objective: To determine if TIAs of short duration (<1 hour) and long duration (1 hour to <24 hours) differ from each other and from ischemic stroke (IS).

Design, Setting, And Patients: Inception cohorts of 1429 patients with acute TIAs and 5206 patients with IS were prospectively documented in 15 German medical centers with neurology departments and acute stroke units.