Ask the consultant: Stroke

Notice that this CME has NOTHING on stroke rehab. So your tyranny of low expectations will stay the same even with new medical students. Your children and grandchildren will be screwed when they have a stroke.  Everyone in stroke needs to be fired for extreme 'not my job' behavior. 

Ask the consultant: Stroke

In our series for internal medicine trainees, consultant stroke physician Dr Don Sims answers trainees’ questions on topics including initiating anticoagulation following an ischaemic stroke, mechanical thrombectomy, anticoagulation in patients with atrial fibrillation, selecting appropriate imaging, and distinguishing stroke from a transient ischaemic attack (TIA) in the first few hours.

Learning outcomes

After completing this module you should understand the importance of:

• Admitting all patients diagnosed with stroke to a (hyper)acute stroke unit to give them the best chance of a good outcome
• Rapid assessment and treatment of patients presenting with a suspected transient ischaemic attack (TIA)
• Investigating patients to determine the exact aetiology of their stroke
• Screening people with ischaemic stroke for atrial fibrillation and when and how to start anticoagulation in patients with a positive diagnosis
• When to use computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), or vascular imaging to determine the cause of a stroke and inform management.

The clinical questions addressed by Dr Don Sims in this module were submitted by our audience panel of UK core medical trainees. If you are interested in joining the panel, please contact Abigail Davis (abigail.davis@bmj.com).