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Karger_ESC London_2013

London, United Kingdom 2013 Cerebrovasc Dis 2013; 35 (suppl 3)1-854 21 2 Heart and brain 8:40 - 8:50 Withdrawn! 8:30-10:00 Oral Session Room 9,10 Heart and brain Chairs: N. Bornstein, Israel and R. Veltkamp, Germany 1 Heart and brain 8:30 - 8:40 Atrial fibrillation detection in unselected stroke patients: Results from a 10-year follow-up study of 1152 consecutive patients with ischaemic stroke or TIA. L. M. Christensen1, A.Christensen2, P.Meden3, L. Leth-Jeppesen4, S. Rosenbaum5, J. Mar-strand6, H. K. Christensen7 University Hospital Bispebjerg, Dept. of Neurology, Copenhagen, DENMARK1,University Hospital Gentofte, Dept. of Radiology, Copenhagen, DENMARK2, University Hospital Bis-pebjerg, Dept. of Neurology, Copenhagen, DENMARK3, University Hospital Bispebjerg, Dept. of Neurology, Copenhagen, DENMARK4, University Hospital Bispebjerg, Dept of Neurology, Copenhagen, DENMARK5, University Hospital Bispebjerg, Dept. of Neurology, Copenhagen, DENMARK6, University Hospital Bispebjerg, Dept. of Neurology, Copenhagen, DENMARK7 Background Screening for causes of cardioembolic stroke often involves 12 lead ECG and telemetry or oth-er methods of monitoring for short bursts arrhythmia. Aim of study was to investigate the long-term frequency and time-course of a diagnose of atrial fibrillation after ischaemic stroke or TIA in patients with initial work including 12-lead ECG and telemetery. Method: Cohort follow-up study of consecutive patients with ischemic stroke or TIA diagnosed by clinical findings and CT-scan admitted within 6 hours of symptom onset to the acute stroke unit from 1998 – 2001 at Bispebjerg University Hospital, Copenhagen. A comprehensive registry was set up and included diagnosis results from ECG and telemetry. Subsequent events of AFIB, recurrent ischemic stroke and death within 10 years of admission date has retrieved by systematic review of patients’ later discharge cards, electronically accessi-ble within the county. Results: 1152 patients with ischemic stroke or TIA were included in the analysis; 17,4 % of pa-tients had a prior diagnosis of AFIB and 6,1 % of patients were diagnosed during hospital stay. Further, 10.3 % were diagnosed with AFIB during the follow-up period. Subsequent AFIB was diagnosed at a median of 2.3 years after the index stroke (25 % quartile: 0.7 year). Conclusion: We consider our results to be a conservative estimate as patients not being diagnosed in-hospi-tal or never being admitted after diagnose are not detected. The results support the hypothesis that atrial fibrillation may frequently be overlooked – event with systematic use of telemetry – as 25% of patients had a new diagnose of AFIB within the first year. Further, AFIB may devel-op in the years after stroke and further increase these patients risk of recurrent stroke. If this pa-tient group would benefit from e.g. pulse palpation at all contacts with the general practitioner, remains to be determined.


Karger_ESC London_2013
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