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Query: UMLS:C0038454 (stroke)
 147,016 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Management of atrial fibrillation includes assessing the need for rate control, identifying underlying conditions, and performing cardioversion or instituting long-term medical therapy. Elective cardioversion should be strongly considered for every patient, chiefly to decrease the incidence of embolic stroke. Patients who remain in chronic atrial fibrillation require attention to rate control; digoxin (Lanoxin) alone may be a poor choice if they are vigorous and active. Many subgroups of patients benefit from long-term anticoagulation.
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PMID:Practical management of atrial fibrillation. 210 77

I review the present understanding of thromboembolic complications and their prevention in patients with nonrheumatic atrial fibrillation. Chronic atrial fibrillation carries an annual 3-6% risk of thromboembolic complications, which is 5-7 times greater than that of controls with sinus rhythm. Paroxysmal atrial fibrillation is associated with a lower risk of thromboembolic complications than chronic atrial fibrillation. Heart failure and systemic hypertension seem to be significant clinical risk factors for stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation, but disagreement persists, and, with few exceptions, subgroups at particular risk have not been convincingly identified. The risk of stroke in persons with thyrotoxic atrial fibrillation seems to be lower than believed previously. Clinical studies have shown that left atrial dilatation is a consequence of the duration of atrial fibrillation rather than a cause, but the relation of left atrial enlargement to stroke is uncertain. Cerebral blood flow may be reduced during atrial fibrillation but seems to increase after cardioversion to sinus rhythm. A high prevalence of silent cerebral infarction has been detected in patients with chronic atrial fibrillation, but there seems to be a low risk of silent cerebral infarction in persons with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation. The one prospective study published to date on stroke prevention in patients with nonrheumatic chronic atrial fibrillation showed that anticoagulation with warfarin significantly reduced the incidence of thromboembolic complications.
Stroke 1990 Jan
PMID:Thromboembolic complications in atrial fibrillation. 240 47

Chronic atrial fibrillation (CAF) may be complicated by asymptomatic small silent cerebral infarctions as well as by stroke. The echocardiographic findings in 29 patients with CAF and 29 controls in sinus rhythm are presented. The cerebral computed tomography (CT) findings in these patients were previously published and significantly more small low-density lesions, probably reflecting previous infarctions, were found in patients with CAF than in controls. The aim of the present study was to evaluate if patients with such cerebral lesions had characteristic echocardiographic abnormalities with special reference to patients with CAF. No significant differences could be detected between the groups with and without cerebral lesions regarding the occurrence of valvular heart disease, left ventricular dysfunction, end-diastolic diameter of the left ventricle, left atrial dimension and left ventricular fractional shortening. Only seven patients with CAF (24%) compared with 21 in sinus rhythm (72%) had normal echocardiograms (P less than 0.001). In conclusion, echocardiography gave no guidance to why some patients developed cerebral low-density areas on CT.
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PMID:Echocardiography and cerebral computed tomography in chronic atrial fibrillation. 260 18

Atrial fibrillation is associated with an increased risk of stroke. Different risk factors may be of importance regarding stroke incidence and mortality in atrial fibrillation. Retrospectively, we studied 786 patients with chronic atrial fibrillation, 229 with rheumatic heart disease and 557 without. In all, 127 patients had stroke (16%). Using Cox's proportional hazard model for failure-time data with age, gender, etiology, degree of heart failure and cardiac enlargement as explanatory (independent) variables, only etiology (rheumatic heart disease) was a significant risk factor for stroke (P less than 0.006). Significant risk factors for death in 653 patients without stroke were age (P = 0.000) and congestive heart failure at the onset of atrial fibrillation (P = 0.000). The need to identify other risk factors for stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation is emphasized, for selecting patients at high risk for prophylactic treatment with anticoagulants or aspirin.
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PMID:Risk factors for stroke in chronic atrial fibrillation. 296 47

Six patients with chronic atrial fibrillation (AF) took single doses of digoxin, verapamil and diltiazem, alone and in combination. Three hours after dosing, resting and post-exercise heart rate, exercise tolerance and resting and post-exercise cardiac output were measured. Post-exercise heart rates ranged from 167 bpm (after placebo) to 122 bpm (after digoxin plus diltiazem) (P less than 0.05). However, the lower ventricular rates seen after treatment with the calcium antagonists were not associated with improved exercise tolerance, which did not differ significantly between the various treatments. Reduction of the ventricular rate was associated with a small increase in stroke volume but the benefits of this were offset by a rate related reduction in cardiac output. Further reduction of the rapid ventricular rates seen in digitalized patients with AF does not appear to be of benefit in terms of improving either exercise tolerance or cardiac output.
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PMID:Relationships between heart rate, exercise tolerance and cardiac output in atrial fibrillation: the effects of treatment with digoxin, verapamil and diltiazem. 316 46

Chronic atrial fibrillation is associated with an increased risk of stroke. In elderly patients with thyrotoxicosis, atrial fibrillation is frequently encountered, and the true risk of cerebrovascular events in these patients is controversial. We retrospectively studied 610 patients with initially untreated thyrotoxicosis, 91 (14.9%) of whom had atrial fibrillation, with the highest frequency in the elderly patients. The risk of cerebrovascular events, with special attention to the first year after the diagnosis of thyrotoxicosis, was calculated using logistic regression methods with age, sex, and atrial fibrillation as independent variables. Only age was an important risk factor (p less than 0.005), whereas sex and atrial fibrillation were not significant (p = 0.09 and p = 0.17, respectively) as independent risk factors. This is contrary to other studies of patients with thyrotoxic atrial fibrillation, and the need for further clarification of this issue is clear. From our study the indication for prophylactic treatment with anticoagulants for prevention of stroke in thyrotoxic atrial fibrillation seems doubtful, especially as no controlled studies of such treatment in patients with atrial fibrillation are currently available.
Stroke 1988 Jan
PMID:Stroke in thyrotoxicosis with atrial fibrillation. 333 98

From 1950 to 1980, 3623 patients from Olmsted County, Minnesota, were found to have atrial fibrillation. Ninety-seven of these patients (2.7 percent), who were 60 years old or younger at diagnosis, had lone atrial fibrillation (atrial fibrillation in the absence of overt cardiovascular disease or precipitating illness), and their data were reviewed to determine the incidence of thromboemboli. Twenty of these patients (21 percent) had an isolated episode of atrial fibrillation, 56 (58 percent) had recurrent atrial fibrillation, and 21 (22 percent) had chronic atrial fibrillation. The total follow-up period was 1440 person-years, with a mean of 14.8 years per patient. The mean age at diagnosis was 44 years. Nineteen cardiovascular events occurred in 17 patients; 4 patients had strokes thought to be due to emboli from atrial fibrillation, and 4 had myocardial infarctions without overt evidence of previous coronary artery disease. The probability of survival at 15 years was 94 percent among the patients with lone atrial fibrillation. At 15 years, 1.3 percent of the patients had had a stroke on a cumulative actuarial basis. On an actuarial basis, there was no difference in survival or in survival free of stroke among the patients with the three types of lone atrial fibrillation (i.e., isolated, recurrent, and chronic). We conclude that lone atrial fibrillation in patients under the age of 60 at diagnosis is associated with a very low risk of stroke. This suggests that routine anticoagulation may not be warranted.
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PMID:The natural history of lone atrial fibrillation. A population-based study over three decades. 362 74

Chronic atrial fibrillation without valvular disease has been associated with increased stroke incidence. The impact of atrial fibrillation on the risk of stroke with increasing age was examined in 5184 men and women in the Framingham Heart Study. After 30 years of follow-up, chronic atrial fibrillation appeared in 303 persons. Age-specific incidence rates steadily increased from 0.2 per 1000 for ages 30 to 39 years to 39.0 per 1000 for ages 80 to 89 years. The proportion of strokes associated with this arrhythmia was 14.7%, 68 of the total 462 initial strokes, increasing steadily with age from 6.7% for ages 50 to 59 years to 36.2% for ages 80 to 89 years. In contrast to the impact of cardiac failure, coronary heart disease, and hypertension, which declined with age, atrial fibrillation was a significant contributor to stroke at all ages.
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PMID:Atrial fibrillation: a major contributor to stroke in the elderly. The Framingham Study. 363 64

The incidence of embolic complications among 426 patients with initial paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF) was analysed. A distinct clustering of emboli was seen at the time of onset of PAF. After transition to chronic atrial fibrillation (CAF), which developed in 141 patients (33.1%), the incidence of emboli was seen to rise to a new level several times higher than the incidence level for patients with PAF. Also in this group a distinct clustering of emboli was seen during the first year after transition to CAF. On this background it is suggested that patients with PAF may benefit from treatment with anti-arrhythmic agents in order to prevent the development of CAF and that anticoagulants for stroke prevention seems especially desirable in atrial fibrillation (AF) of recent onset.
Stroke
PMID:Embolic complications in paroxysmal atrial fibrillation. 373 42

Chronic atrial fibrillation is generally thought to cause stroke by atrial thrombus formation with subsequent embolization. Rheumatic heart disease previously led to most cases of atrial fibrillation, but recent substantial declines in the incidence of rheumatic fever have changed the distribution of causes of atrial fibrillation. Elderly patients have an appreciable prevalence of chronic atrial fibrillation. The risks and potential benefits of long-term anti-coagulation for elderly patients with atrial fibrillation are discussed and the quality of the evidence assessed. It is concluded that the evidence is sufficiently incomplete and imperfect for a large, well-designed trial to be needed; however, this would be difficult and expensive.
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PMID:Chronic atrial fibrillation in the elderly: risks vs. benefits of long-term anticoagulation. 392 90


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