Summary Background Among patients with atrial fibrillation, the risk of stroke is highest for those with a history of stroke; however, oral anticoagulants can lower the risk of recurrent stroke by ...two-thirds. No consensus has been reached about how atrial fibrillation should be investigated in patients with stroke, and its prevalence after a stroke remains uncertain. We did a systematic review and meta-analysis to estimate the proportion of patients newly diagnosed with atrial fibrillation after four sequential phases of cardiac monitoring after a stroke or transient ischaemic attack. Methods We searched PubMed, Embase, and Scopus from 1980 to June 30, 2014. We included studies that provided the number of patients with ischaemic stroke or transient ischaemic attack who were newly diagnosed with atrial fibrillation. We stratified cardiac monitoring methods into four sequential phases of screening: phase 1 (emergency room) consisted of admission electrocardiogram (ECG); phase 2 (in hospital) comprised serial ECG, continuous inpatient ECG monitoring, continuous inpatient cardiac telemetry, and in-hospital Holter monitoring; phase 3 (first ambulatory period) consisted of ambulatory Holter; and phase 4 (second ambulatory period) consisted of mobile cardiac outpatient telemetry, external loop recording, and implantable loop recording. The primary endpoint was the proportion of patients newly diagnosed with atrial fibrillation for each method and each phase, and for the sequential combination of phases. For each method and each phase, we estimated the summary proportion of patients diagnosed with post-stroke atrial fibrillation using random-effects meta-analyses. Findings Our systematic review returned 28 290 studies, of which 50 studies (comprising 11 658 patients) met the criteria for inclusion in the meta-analyses. The summary proportion of patients diagnosed with post-stroke atrial fibrillation was 7·7% (95% CI 5·0–10·8) in phase 1, 5·1% (3·8–6·5) in phase 2, 10·7% (5·6–17·2) in phase 3, and 16·9% (13·0–21·2) in phase 4. The overall atrial fibrillation detection yield after all phases of sequential cardiac monitoring was 23·7% (95% CI 17·2–31·0). Interpretation By sequentially combining cardiac monitoring methods, atrial fibrillation might be newly detected in nearly a quarter of patients with stroke or transient ischaemic attack. The overall proportion of patients with stroke who are known to have atrial fibrillation seems to be higher than previously estimated. Accordingly, more patients could be treated with oral anticoagulants and more stroke recurrences prevented. Funding Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, and Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
The relative contributions of vascular and degenerative pathology to dementia are unknown. We aim to quantify the proportion of dementia explained by potentially preventable vascular lesions.
We ...systematically searched for population-based cohorts before February 2017 reporting clinicopathological data for individuals with and without dementia. We calculated the summary proportion and absolute risk of dementia comparing subjects with and without the pathology.
We identified 10 studies comprising 2856 subjects. Vascular-type pathology and mixed pathology are respectively two and three times more likely in demented patients. The summary proportion of dementia is 77%–86% in subjects with mixed degenerative and vascular pathology and 45% in subjects with pure Alzheimer-type pathology.
Patients with mixed pathologies have nearly twice the incremental risk of dementia compared with patients with only Alzheimer-type lesions. Consequently, many cases of dementia could be prevented or delayed by targeting the vascular component.
•Vascular lesions were the most frequent types of brain lesions (44%) in the elderly.•Vascular-type pathology is two-times more likely in demented vs. nondemented subjects.•Mixed pathology doubles the risk of dementia compared with only degenerative lesions.•Mixed pathology is three-times more likely in demented vs. nondemented subjects.•Many cases of dementia could be prevented or delayed by targeting vascular component.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Atrial fibrillation is being increasingly diagnosed after ischemic stroke and transient ischemic attack (TIA). Patient characteristics, frequency and duration of paroxysms, and the risk of recurrent ...ischemic stroke associated with atrial fibrillation detected after stroke and TIA (AFDAS) may differ from atrial fibrillation already known before stroke occurrence. We aim to summarize major recent advances in the field, in the context of prior evidence, and to identify areas of uncertainty to be addressed in future research.
Half of all atrial fibrillations in ischemic stroke and TIA patients are AFDAS, and most of them are asymptomatic. Over 50% of AFDAS paroxysms last less than 30 s. The rapid initiation of cardiac monitoring and its duration are crucial for its timely and effective detection. AFDAS comprises a heterogeneous mix of atrial fibrillation, possibly including cardiogenic and neurogenic types, and a mix of both. Over 25 single markers and at least 10 scores have been proposed as predictors of AFDAS. However, there are considerable inconsistencies across studies. The role of AFDAS burden and its associated risk of stroke recurrence have not yet been investigated.
AFDAS may differ from atrial fibrillation known before stroke in several clinical dimensions, which are important for optimal patient care strategies. Many questions remain unanswered. Neurogenic and cardiogenic AFDAS need to be characterized, as it may be possible to avoid some neurogenic cases by initiating timely preventive treatments. AFDAS burden may differ in ischemic stroke and TIA patients, with distinctive diagnostic and treatment implications. The prognosis of AFDAS and its risk of recurrent stroke are still unknown; therefore, it is uncertain whether AFDAS patients should be treated with oral anticoagulants.
We assessed the impact of the coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic on code stroke activations in the emergency department, stroke unit admissions, and referrals to the stroke prevention clinic ...at London’s regional stroke center, serving a population of 1.8 million in Ontario, Canada. We found a 20% drop in the number of code strokes in 2020 compared to 2019, immediately after the first cases of COVID-19 were officially confirmed. There were no changes in the number of stroke admissions and there was a 22% decrease in the number of clinic referrals, only after the provincial lockdown. Our findings suggest that the decrease in code strokes was mainly driven by patient-related factors such as fear to be exposed to the SARS-CoV-2, while the reduction in clinic referrals was largely explained by hospital policies and the Government lockdown.
Atrial fibrillation (AF) can be newly detected in approximately one-fourth of patients with ischemic stroke and transient ischemic attack without previously recognized AF. We present updated evidence ...supporting that AF detected after stroke or transient ischemic attack (AFDAS) may be a distinct clinical entity from AF known before stroke occurrence (known atrial fibrillation). Data suggest that AFDAS can arise from the interplay of cardiogenic and neurogenic forces. The embolic risk of AFDAS can be understood as a gradient defined by the prevalence of vascular comorbidities, the burden of AF, neurogenic autonomic changes, and the severity of atrial cardiopathy. The balance of existing data indicates that AFDAS has a lower prevalence of cardiovascular comorbidities, a lower degree of cardiac abnormalities than known atrial fibrillation, a high proportion (52%) of very brief (<30 seconds) AF paroxysms, and is more frequently associated with insular brain infarction. These distinctive features of AFDAS may explain its recently observed lower associated risk of stroke than known atrial fibrillation. We present an updated ad-hoc meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials in which the association between prolonged cardiac monitoring and reduced risk of ischemic stroke was nonsignificant (incidence rate ratio, 0.90 95% CI, 0.71-1.15). These findings highlight that larger and sufficiently powered randomized controlled trials of prolonged cardiac monitoring assessing the risk of stroke recurrence are needed. Meanwhile, we call for further research on AFDAS and stroke recurrence, and a tailored approach when using prolonged cardiac monitoring after ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack, focusing on patients at higher risk of AFDAS and, more importantly, at higher risk of cardiac embolism.
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