Diagnosing Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation in Patients with Ischemic Strokes and Transient Ischemic Attacks using Echocardiographic Measures of Left Atrium Function

Twenty-five to thirty-five percent of stroke cases are cryptogenic and it has been demonstrated that paroxysmal atrial fibrillation is the causal agent in up to 25% of these incidents. The purpose of this study was to investigate if left atrial (LA) parameters have value for diagnosing paroxysmal AF in ischemic stroke (IS) and transient ischemic attack (TIA) patients. We retrospectively analyzed 219 patients who after acute IS or TIA underwent a transthoracic echocardiographic examination. Patients were designated as paroxysmal AF-patients if they had one or more reported incidents of AF before or after their echocardiographic examination.

Source: The American Journal of Cardiology - October 16, 2015 Category: Cardiology Authors: Kristoffer Grundtvig Skaarup, Hanne Christensen, Nis Høst, Masti Mahdy Mahmoud, Christian Ovesen, Flemming Javier Olsen, Tor Biering-Sørensen Source Type: research