Does higher ABCD2 score predict patients most likely to have true transient ischemic attack?
Among patients diagnosed by emergency department physicians with TIA, higher ABCD2 score was associated with a greater likelihood that the diagnosis was confirmed on expert review. The predictive power of the ABCD2 model is therefore partially explained by identification of those patients likely to have experienced a true TIA, an important aspect of the score when used by nonneurologists. However, higher ABCD2 scores still remained predictive of 90-day stroke rate in the group of patients judged to have a true TIA by an expert neurologist.
The addition of vancomycin as a prophylactic antibiotic agent apparently did not reduce the rate of SSI compared to cefazolin alone. Use of vancomycin in addition to cefazolin appeared to reduce the incidence of MRSA infections; however, the number needed to treat to prevent a single MRSA infection was very high.