A: Age, 60 or older gets 1 point.
B: Blood Pressure, BP higer than 140/90 gets 1 point.
C: Clinical features, Focal weakness gets 2 points.
Speech impairment without weakness gets 1 point.
D: Duration, a TIA duration of 10-59 minutes gets 1 point.
A duration of 60 minutes or longer gets 2 points.
D: Diabetes, 1 point for a known diabetic.
Each has been shown to be an independent risk factor for
stroke within 2 days after a TIA.
A score of 3 or less: 1% risk of stroke within 2 days.
A score of 4-5: 4% risk of stroke within 2 days.
A score of 6-7: 8% risk of stroke within 2 days.
With a score of 3 or more, tell the patient to go
directly to ER.
A case example:
a 72 year old diabetic woman who phones her doctor's office
because she has just had a 90 minute episode of difficulty
in speaking and arm weakness. She stresses that she feels
completely normal now.
Even without knowing her BP, her ABCD2 score is 6,
giving her an 8% risk of stroke within the next 2 days.
She needs to go to the ER immediately, not to her
doctor's office.
and director of the stroke center at UC San Francisco along with his co-workers through
analysis of large patient data sets(published in Lancet 2007;369:283-92) and has been
validated in many studies and currently is endorsed by
the American Heart Assn and American Stroke Assn guidelines for practioners.