AHA: February 12, 2014 Study Highlights: Stroke hospitalization and death rates may be associated with changes in environmental temperature and dew point. Large daily temperature changes and higher average dew points may be linked with higher stroke hospitalizations. Embargoed until 7:30 a.m. PT/ 10:30 a.m. ET Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2014. This news release is featured […]
STROKEAHA: February 4, 2014 The National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) is used widely among stroke neurologists and neuroscience nurses. It is most commonly used with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) but is also used to assess patients after hemorrhagic stroke or a suspected transient ischemic attack. The scale is used widely to assess patient status […]
AHA: January 23, 2014 Background and Purpose—Stroke is the fourth-leading cause of death and a leading cause of long-term major disability in the United States. Measuring outcomes after stroke has important policy implications. The primary goals of this consensus statement are to (1) review statistical considerations when evaluating models that define hospital performance in providing stroke […]
BMC Health Services Research: February 20, 2014 Background Atrial fibrillation (AF) and heart failure (HF) are both common comorbid conditions of elderly patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS), but published data on their associated clinical and economic outcomes are limited. Methods Our study included patients from the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey with an incident hospitalization for […]
PLOS: February 11, 2014 Background Patients with atrial fibrillation considering use of anticoagulants must balance stroke reduction against bleeding risk. Knowledge of bleeding risk without the use of anticoagulants may help inform this decision. Purpose To determine the rate of major bleeding reported in observational studies of atrial fibrillation patients not receiving Vitamin K antagonists […]
JACC: February 2014 The historical origin of the term ‘lone atrial fibrillation (AF)’ predates by 80 years our current understanding of the pathophysiology of AF, the multitude of known etiologies for AF, and our ability to image and diagnose heart disease. The term was meant to indicate AF in whom subsequent investigations could not demonstrate […]
Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology.: January 20, 2014 Background—Inflammation has been linked to the genesis of stroke in atrial fibrillation (AF) and is implicated in early recurrent arrhythmia after AF ablation. We aimed to define the time course of inflammation, myocardial injury, and prothrombotic markers after radiofrequency ablation for AF and its relation to AF recurrence. Methods […]
STROKEAHA: January 14, 2014 Background and Purpose—Supraventricular premature beats (SPBs) may help to assess the risk of atrial fibrillation (AF) in patients with cryptogenic stroke and therefore guide therapy. Methods—An internal loop recorder was implanted in consecutive patients with acute cryptogenic stroke. The occurrence and quantity of SPBs and short supraventricular runs (SVRs) in 24-hour ECG […]
STROKEAHA: February 25, 2014 Background and Purpose—Our aim was to determine the relationships between angiographic collaterals and diffusion/perfusion findings, subsequent infarct growth, and clinical outcome in patients undergoing endovascular therapy for ischemic stroke. Methods—Sixty patients with a thrombolysis in cerebral infarction (TICI) score of 0 or 1 and internal carotid artery/M1 occlusion at baseline were evaluated. […]
The Lancet Neurology, Early Online Publication, 13 February 2014 Background High blood pressure is a prognostic factor for acute stroke, but blood pressure variability might also independently predict outcome. We assessed the prognostic value of blood pressure variability in participants of INTERACT2, an open-label randomised controlled trial (ClinicalTrials.gov number NCT00716079). Methods INTERACT2 enrolled 2839 adults with spontaneous […]
