{"id":43873,"date":"2014-06-26T18:31:13","date_gmt":"2014-06-26T22:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/?post_type=news&p=43873"},"modified":"2014-06-26T18:31:13","modified_gmt":"2014-06-26T22:31:13","slug":"to-screen-or-not-for-af-is-that-the-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/2014\/06\/26\/to-screen-or-not-for-af-is-that-the-question\/","title":{"rendered":"To Screen or Not for AF: Is That the Question?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Up to one third of ischemic strokes are of uncertain etiology or \u201ccryptogenic,\u201d meaning that there is no overt explanation such as severe carotid stenosis, intracranial stenosis, or documented atrial fibrillation (AF). For some of these patients, intermittent AF may be present and could explain the ischemic stroke. This issue has been addressed by two recent studies published in the\u00a0New England Journal of Medicine<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In the EMBRACE study<\/a>, researchers randomized 572 patients aged 55 or older with cryptogenic stroke to either 30-day electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring with a portable event monitor or to a standard 24-hour ECG recording. The primary outcome was newly detected AF lasting 30 seconds or more within 90 days of study entry. This endpoint was detected in 16.1% of the prolonged monitoring group, compared with 3.2% in the control group (P<0.001). By 90 days, significantly more patients in the prolonged monitoring group than in the control group were placed on anticoagulants (19% vs. 11%).<\/p>\n

In\u00a0the CRYSTAL AF study<\/a>, investigators randomized 441 patients aged 40 or older with cryptogenic stroke to receive an insertable cardiac monitor (ICM) or undergo conventional follow-up. AF lasting more than 30 seconds was detected in 8.9% of the ICM patients versus 1.4% of the control group by 6 months (the primary endpoint; P<0.001). At 12 months, the rates were 12.4% vs. 2.0% (P<0.001). The median time from randomization to the first detection of AF was 84 days with ICM and 53 days with conventional follow-up.<\/p>\n

Comment:<\/strong><\/span><\/em> Atrial fibrillation is the leading cause of cardioembolic stroke and is associated with severe strokes and high mortality. Therefore, identifying its presence in patients with stroke or transient ischemic attack is important. At face value, screening for AF in patients with strokes of uncertain cause would seem sensible.<\/p>\n

In these two studies, brief episodes of AF were fairly common, in the range of 12% to 16% over a period of 1 to 12 months after the stroke event. The number needed to screen ranged from 8 to 10. However, some relevant uncertainties remain. Is a brief episode of asymptomatic AF, especially if detected months after the stroke, causally related to the stroke? How long must an AF episode last to be clinically significant, and when should it trigger initiation of anticoagulant therapy? Which stroke patients would benefit the most from AF screening? Screening for AF in patients with cryptogenic stroke likely should increase, but these questions must be addressed to determine how often we should screen for and treat AF in such cases.<\/p>\n

–Seemant Chaturvedi, MD<\/p>\n

Dr. Chaturvedi is Professor of Neurology at Wayne State University School of Medicine and Director of the Wayne State\/Detroit Medical Center Comprehensive Stroke Program.<\/em>
\nReprinted from NEJM Journal Watch Neurology<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Up to one third of ischemic strokes are of uncertain etiology or \u201ccryptogenic,\u201d meaning that there is no overt explanation such as severe carotid stenosis, intracranial stenosis, or documented atrial fibrillation (AF). For some of these patients, intermittent AF may be present and could explain the ischemic stroke. This issue has been addressed by two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":346,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[495,13,1,9],"tags":[2293,341,1175,253],"class_list":["post-43873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anticoagulation-2","category-electrophysiology","category-general","category-interventional-cardiology","tag-af-screening","tag-atrial-fibrillation","tag-cryptogenic-stroke","tag-stroke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/346"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43873\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}