Check the pulse to track irregular heartbeats after a stroke
The rapid, irregular heartbeat known as atrial
fibrillation is a key cause of stroke. New research suggests that it's to blame
for more strokes than doctors realized, and that simply measuring the pulse could
help detect unrecognized atrial fibrillation and avert a second stroke, reports
the October 2014 Harvard Heart Letter.
Atrial fibrillation can come and go,
lasting from a few seconds to several days. Some people have distressing
symptoms such as palpitations, dizziness, or chest pressure. For many others, atrial
fibrillation passes silently. Either way, blood can pool in the heart's upper
chambers, or atria. This stagnant blood can form clots, which can then travel
to the brain and cause a stroke.
After an unexplained stroke, most people without signs of
atrial fibrillation leave the hospital with instructions to take an
antiplatelet medicine such as aspirin. They generally aren't instructed to take
a more powerful blood thinner, the best type of drug for preventing stroke in
people with atrial fibrillation.
Checking the heart rhythm for weeks or months after a stroke
could detect atrial fibrillation that comes and goes. "The general idea is
that if you do more cardiac monitoring, you can catch more atrial fibrillation than
if you do nothing," says Dr. Moussa Mansour, director of the Atrial
Fibrillation Program at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital and
associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Detection, and the
treatment that follows, can...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
More News: Aspirin | Atrial Fibrillation | Brain | Cardiology | Harvard | Health | Heart | Hospitals | Neurology | Skin | Stroke | Study | Training | Universities & Medical Training