Recognising it
FAST, the strokes it misses, TIA, mimics, and the time that decides everything.
Recognising a stroke, including the ones FAST misses
FAST and BE-FAST, the posterior strokes that look like vertigo, TIA, the mimics, children, and why "last known well" is the most valuable thing you can hand over. 5 min.
In hospital
The windows with their numbers, and the first 72 hours.
The clock: every window, with the numbers
Thrombolysis to 4.5 hours and beyond it, thrombectomy to 24 hours, large strokes, the basilar artery, haemorrhage in the first hour — each with benefit and harm in absolute terms, and a decision sequence for "which one, if any". 9 min.
The hospital checklist: the first 72 hours
Scan within the hour, swallow screen within four, aspirin within 24, the blood pressure rules that changed in 2026, clot prevention, the stroke unit, and how much rehabilitation the guideline actually asks for. 6 min.
After hospital
Finding the cause and preventing the next one.
Finding the cause
The five mechanisms, the standard workup with its time limits, the carotid clock, the atrial fibrillation that a single ECG misses, the hole in the heart, and the search that younger and unexplained strokes deserve. 8 min.
Every test, and when it is worth doing
The first-day bloods, the cause-finding tests, and the extended blood, genetic and heart tests for young and unexplained strokes — from antiphospholipid antibodies to Fabry and CADASIL — with what each result changes. 9 min.
Preventing the next one
The blood thinner by cause and how soon to start it, a cholesterol target most people have never been told, blood pressure below 130, daily life, mood and driving, and what gets rechecked when. 9 min.
For doctors
The two guidelines on one page.
For doctors: the two guidelines on one page
NCGS 2023 and NG128 against the 2026 AHA/ASA guideline, by window, for haemorrhage, for the ward and for prevention; doses; the referral conversation. 7 min.
Printable
The treatment timeline.
Printable treatment timeline
One sheet: what is on the table at each hour after onset, in UK and US guidance, for a blockage and for a bleed. 3 min.