Echocardiography can identify an imaging sign for atrial fibrillation, cardioembolic stroke, and stroke recurrence, helping to predict which patients are at greater risk for stroke, according to a poster presented on Saturday at the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) annual meeting in Portland, OR.
A research team led by Dr. Timothy Tan, PhD, of Massachusetts General Hospital employed 3D stress echocardiography and customized software to analyze a small cohort of 40 ischemic stroke patients to compare left atrial remodeling between patients with and without atrial fibrillation.
From those results as well as flow dynamics analysis, the researchers derived a simplified echocardiographic parameter using 2D echo measurements to calculate the midleft atrial cross-sectional area (LACSA). They then validated the new formula in a separate group of 1,275 ischemic stroke patients, according to the group.
