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Updated: Mar 9, 2026

Estimating Bilateral Atrial Function by Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Feature Tracking in Patients with Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation
Published on: July 20, 2022
Frequency of left atrial dilatation in ischemic stroke
Handan Cemile Misirli1, Havva Tugba Yanar2, Serife Nese Erdogan1
1Department of Neurology, Haydarpasa Numune Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
Objective:
The study aimed to evaluate the frequency of left atrial dilatation in cases of first-ever acute ischemic stroke with or without atrial fibrillation in a cohort of patients hospitalized for ischemic stroke.
Methods:
Files of 120 patients admitted to our hospital with the diagnosis of acute ischemic stroke were investigated. All patients had at least one brain imaging. Etiology of stroke was categorized according to Trial of Org 10172 in Acute Stroke Treatment (TOAST) classification. Transthoracic and/or transoesophageal echocardiography was used to measure left atrium size. Optimal cut-off value of left atrial diameter was determined as 4 cm. SPSS 11.5 was used for statistical analyses.
Results:
In 40% of the patients, left atrial dilatation was detected. Nineteen patients with left atrial dilatation had atrial fibrillation, which was statistically significant (p<0.05). Ninety-four (30.8%) patients with no atrial fibrillation had left atrial dilatation. In the TOAST classification trial, as a statistically significant finding, left atrial dilatation was detected 68.9% of the patients with cardioembolic infarcts. The most frequently encountered risk factor in patients was hypertension.
Conclusion:
Left atrial dilatation is an important marker for cerebrovascular diseases, and if accompanied by atrial fibrillation becomes even more significant.
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