New Report: Is Your Stroke A-Fib-Related or Something Else?
Third in my series from the Ninth Annual Western Atrial Fibrillation Symposium held February 26-27, 2016 in Park City, UT. Read my other reports here.
If you have A-Fib, it’s important to realize that not all strokes are ‘A-Fib related’. You may be perfectly anticoagulated or have a Watchman Device installed and still experience a stroke.
Dr. Jennifer Majersik of the Stroke Center of the Un. of Utah described the case of a man with A-Fib who had an ischemic stroke even though his INR on warfarin was in the correct range.
An A-Fib patient can have a stroke that isn’t caused by A-Fib. There are multiple mechanisms which can cause a stroke. Of the 690,000 strokes in the US/year nearly 1/3 are cryptogenic (of unknown cause) and of those 30% is caused by asymptomatic or Silent A-Fib.
Read my full report in which Dr. Majersik described five subtypes of artery occlusion strokes (as opposed to hemorrhagic [bleeding or vessel rupture] strokes.) <…continue reading…>