Paf-related ischemic stroke: Clinical,radiological and echocardiographic findings [Paf ilişkili iskemik inme: Klinik,radyolojik ve ekokardiografik bulgular]

Introduction: atrial fibrillation (af) is the most common etiological factor involved in ischemic stroke. there are no definitive data regarding the prevalence of paroxysmal af (paf)-related ischemic stroke. in this study,we prospectively evaluated clinical,radiological and transthoracic echocardiography(tte) findings and their association with stroke outcomes. materials and methods: we evaluated 48 patients diagnosed with paf from a cohort of 588 patients with ischemic stroke. functional independence and good clinical outcome were assessed at 3 months and defined as a mrs score of 0 - 1. results: the mean age of the study population was 69.04 ± 10.407 years,and 25 patients were females. the leading vascular risk factors were hypertension (89.6%) and hyper-lipidemia (54.2%). at 3 months,37 patients had an mrs score of 0 - 1,six patients had an mrs score of 2 - 3,four patients had an mrs score of 4 - 5 and only one patient had an mrs score of 6. the cha2ds2vasc score (p = 0.048),nihss score (p = 0.0001) and mrs score (0 - 1) were significantly related to a good clinical outcome at 3 months. therefore,the functional dependence of patients with left atrial diameter greater than 40 mm was increased significantly at 3 months (p = 0.008). conclusion: in contrast to previous studies on af stroke,our data showed that paf is related to a mild stroke outcome at 3 months and rapid regression of the patient's neurological state. we hypothesize that the diameter of the left atrium could be a marker for stroke outcome © 2015,ege university press. all rights reserved.