Older age, current tobacco smoking, concurrent heart failure or anemia, and no prescription statin identifies patients with transient ischemic attacks (TIA) at high risk for recurrent hospitalizations and the burden of these hospitalizations predicts subsequent mortality. This according to a recent study that examined predictors of recurrent hospitalizations and the importance of these hospitalizations for subsequent mortality after incident TIAs that have not yet been investigated. Adults hospitalized for TIA from 2000 through 2017 were examined for recurrent hospitalizations, days, and percentage of time spent hospitalized and long-term mortality. Researchers found:

• Of 266 patients hospitalized for TIA, 122 died, 212 had 826 “any condition” hospitalization (59 from TIA-related conditions) corresponding to 3,384 inpatient days during 1,693 person-years of follow-up.
• Of 42 patient-level characteristics, age ≥65 years, current smoking, concurrent heart failure or anemia, and no prescription statin emerged as significant predictors of any condition rehospitalization.
• All these variables, except heart failure, remained significant predictors of TIA-related rehospitalizations.
• All-cause mortality was significantly increased after each hospitalization from any condition, TIA-related condition, and per each day and per 1% of follow-up time spent hospitalized from any condition.