Hansson PO, et al. - Among patients with a clinical suspicion of stroke in a prehospital setting, researchers assessed clinical findings to identify independent predictors of a final diagnosis of stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA). For this observational multi-center study, they included all patients during a 4-month period transported to hospital by ambulance suspected of having a stroke by an emergency medical services clinician prior to hospital admission. Factors that were independently related to a final diagnosis of stroke or TIA in a multiple logistic regression analysis were increasing age, history of myocardial infarction, facial droop, arm weakness, speech disturbance, and high systolic blood pressure; low oxygen saturation was significantly linked to other diagnoses. During the five-year follow-up, more than half of all patients with both stroke/TIA and other final diagnoses died.