Long-term follow-up of acute functional stroke mimic in comparison to mild acute ischaemic stroke, 2021, Lambert et al

Introduction

Each year many patients are admitted to the emergency department with a suspicion of acute ischaemic stroke (AIS). There are several conditions that can present with acute stroke-like symptoms, of which the most common are seizures, migraine and functional disorder. The latter are called functional stroke mimics (FSM). While the outcome of patients with AIS has extensively been studied, little is known about the outcome of FSM. Short-term follow-up studies in acute FSM have shown that about 80% of patients with FSM still reported symptoms after 2 months,1 but long-term follow-up studies are lacking. We therefore compared the long-term outcome in patients with FSM with patients diagnosed with mild AIS.

Open access, https://jnnp.bmj.com/content/early/2021/10/27/jnnp-2021-327379