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Embolic stroke: the heart–brain connection reassessed

¹ Department Neurology Donauklinikum and Centre Neurosciences, Donau-Universität, Maria Gugging, Austria
² 2nd Medical Department, Krankenanstalt Rudolfstiftung, Vienna, Austria

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Professor Michael Brainin
Donauklinikum and Donau-Universität, Hauptstrasse 2, A-3400 Maria Gugging, Austria; michael.brainin@donau-uni.ac.at

Keywords: stroke; transesophageal echocardiography

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Autopsy series published a century ago, showed that cerebral emboli arising from the major vessels and the heart are an important pathophysiological cause of stroke.¹ Since then not much has changed. According to one recent and comprehensive textbook² embolism accounts for up to 60% of all ischemic strokes. Cardiac conditions associated with such cerebral emboli are atrial fibrillation in 45% of the cases, followed by acute myocardial infarction, ventricular aneurysm, rheumatic heart disease, prosthetic cardiac valves, aortic atheroma, and other causes.

With the availability of transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) in many stroke centres, intracardiac emboli resting in the left atrial appendage or left atrium can now be readily identified and treatment with anticoagulation can be installed.³ In this issue Sen et al ⁴ (see page 1421) have reassessed the cardiac risk factors in a systematic study using TEE within a week of stroke onset in a largely unselected cohort . . . [Full text of this article]

Relevant Article

Risk factors for intracardiac thrombus in patients with recent ischaemic cerebrovascular events

S Sen, S Laowatana, J Lima, and S M Oppenheimer
J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 2004 75: 1421-1425. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]