PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Tao, Lin
AU  - Dai, Ying-Jie
AU  - Shang, Zi-Yang
AU  - Li, Xiao-Qiu
AU  - Wang, Xin-Hong
AU  - Ntaios, George
AU  - Chen, Hui-Sheng
TI  - Atrial cardiopathy and non-stenotic intracranial complicated atherosclerotic plaque in patients with embolic stroke of undetermined source
AID  - 10.1136/jnnp-2021-327517
DP  - 2022 Apr 01
TA  - Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry
PG  - 351--359
VI  - 93
IP  - 4
4099  - http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/93/4/351.short
4100  - http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/93/4/351.full
SO  - J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry2022 Apr 01; 93
AB  - Objective To assess (1) the association between atrial cardiopathy (AC) and non-stenotic intracranial complicated atherosclerotic plaque (NICAP) in patients with embolic stroke of undetermined source (ESUS) or small-vessel disease (SVD), and (2) the performance of previously proposed biomarkers to identify AC as the underlying aetiology in ESUS.Methods Based on our high-resolution MRI (HR-MRI) cohort, 403 subjects (243 ESUS and 160 SVD) were enrolled in the final analysis. All patients underwent intracranial HR-MRI to assess the presence of ipsilateral NICAP. Biomarkers of AC (ie, P-wave terminal force in lead V1 (PTFV1) on ECG, N-terminal probrain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T and left atrial diameter) were collected within 24 hours after admission.Results Among patients without ipsilateral NICAP, we found an association between the presence of AC (adjusted OR (aOR): 4.76, 95% CI 2.48 to 9.14), increased PTFV1 (aOR: 5.70, 95% CI: 2.43 to 13.39) and NT-proBNP (aOR: 1.65, 95% CI: 1.16 to 2.35) with ESUS. This association was not evident among patients with ipsilateral NICAP. The discrimination between ESUS versus SVD by AC/AC-related biomarkers was significantly improved after excluding ipsilateral NICAP. Similarly, the discrimination between ESUS and SVD by ipsilateral NICAP was notably augmented after excluding AC, PTFV1 and NT-proBNP.Interpretation AC is more prevalent in patients who had ESUS without ipsilateral NICAP compared with patients with, implying that AC and ipsilateral NICAP are two distinct, competing aetiologies of ESUS. Among the AC biomarkers studied in this analysis, PTFV1 seems to be the most informative.Data are available upon reasonable request. The data underlying this article will be shared upon reasonable request to the corresponding author.