Left Atria Strain Is a Surrogate Marker for Detection of Atrial Fibrillation in Cryptogenic Strokes

STROKEAHA:  June 26, 2014

After complete diagnostic workup, a quarter of ischemic strokes are regarded as undetermined pathogenesis at discharge with a substantial rate of mortality in some cases.¹ Paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF) is the most frequent occult cause resulting in significant morbidity and costs when is under diagnosed.² Recent studies have shown that extending the cardiac monitoring duration with subcutaneous implantable monitors and selecting patients for prolonged monitoring significantly increased the PAF detection in ischemic strokes.³ The left atria volume (LAv) has been used to assess the left atrial function. Nevertheless, the left atria dimension is predictive of stroke but become nonsignificant after adjustment for the older age.⁴ The left atria function can be also obtained by the analysis of the left atria walls deformation, also called strain of the left atria. The speckle tracking is an echocardiographic technique that uses standard B-mode images for the analysis of the acoustic backscatter generated by the ultrasound beam. Read More