• Eur. J. Intern. Med. · Oct 2021

    Multicenter Study

    Detection of subclinical atrial fibrillation after cryptogenic stroke using implantable cardiac monitors.

    • Andrea Ungar, Francesca Pescini, Martina Rafanelli, Maria Vittoria De Angelis, Massimiliano Faustino, Caterina Tomaselli, Alfredo Petrone, Giovanni Forleo, Giovanni Morani, Stefano Forlivesi, Giulio Molon, Alessandro Adami, Massimiliano Maines, Chiara Stegagno, Anna Poggesi, and Leonardo Pantoni.
    • Division of Geriatric and Intensive Care Medicine, Syncope Unit, University of Florence, Firenze, Italy. Electronic address: andrea.ungar@unifi.it.
    • Eur. J. Intern. Med. 2021 Oct 1; 92: 86-93.

    BackgroundImplantable cardiac monitor (ICM) revealed subclinical atrial fibrillation (SCAF) in up to 30% of cryptogenic stroke (CS) patients in randomized trials. However, real world data are limited.ObjectivesWe investigated SCAF occurrence, treatments, clinical outcomes and predictors of SCAF in a multicenter real-world population subjected to ICM after CS.MethodsFrom September 2016 to November 2019, 20 Italian centers collected data of consecutive patients receiving ICM after CS and followed with remote and outpatient follow-up according to clinical practice. All device-detected AF events were confirmed by the cardiologist to diagnose SCAF.ResultsICM was implanted in 334 CS patients (mean age±SD 67.4±11.5 years, 129 (38.6%) females, 242 (76.1%) with CHA2DS2-VASC score≥4). During a follow-up of 23.6 (IQR 14.6-31.5) months, SCAF was diagnosed in 92 (27.5%) patients. First episode was asymptomatic in 81 (88.1%). SCAF daily burden ≥5 minutes was 22.0%, 24.1% and 31.5% at 6, 12, and 24 months after ICM implantation. Median time to first day with AF was 60 (IQR 18-140) days. Female gender, age>69 years, PR interval>160 ms and cortical-subcortical infarct type at enrolment were independently associated with an increased risk of SCAF.ConclusionsIn a real-world population, ICM detected SCAF in more than a quarter of CS patients. This experience confirms the relevance of implanting CS patients, for maximizing the possibilities to detect AF, following failure of Holter monitoring, according to guidelines. However, there is need to demonstrate that shift to oral anticoagulation following SCAF detection is associated with reduced risk of recurrent stroke.Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier B.V.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…