A Comparison of Atrial Fibrillation Monitoring Strategies after Cryptogenic Stroke (From the CRYSTAL AF Trial)

Ischemic stroke etiology remains undetermined in 30% of cases, leading to a diagnosis of cryptogenic stroke. Paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF) is a major cause of ischemic stroke but may go undetected with short periods of ECG monitoring. The Cryptogenic Stroke and Underlying Atrial Fibrillation trial (CRYSTAL AF) demonstrated that long-term ECG monitoring with insertable cardiac monitors (ICM) is superior to conventional follow-up in detecting AF in the cryptogenic stroke population. We evaluated the sensitivity and negative predictive value (NPV) of various external monitoring techniques within a cryptogenic stroke cohort.

Source: The American Journal of Cardiology - June 24, 2015 Category: Cardiology Authors: William C. Choe, Rod S. Passman, Johannes Brachmann, Carlos A. Morillo, Tommaso Sanna, Richard Bernstein, Vincenzo Di Lazzaro, Hans-Christoph Diener, Marilyn Rymer, Frank Beckers, Jodi Koehler, Paul D. Ziegler, CRYSTAL AF Investigators Source Type: research