Cardiac wall motion abnormality as a predictor for undetermined stroke with embolic lesion-pattern

Area of Science:

• Cardiology
• Neurology
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Cardioembolic (CE) stroke has high mortality and recurrence rates.
• Identifying treatable cardiac sources of embolism is crucial.
• The association between regional wall motion abnormality (RWMA) and cerebral embolic risk is unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the influence of RWMA on undetermined stroke with embolic lesion-pattern (USELP).

Main Methods:

• Included 1356 patients with acute ischemic stroke.
• Classified patients into USELP (119) and non-embolic stroke (1237) groups.
• Assessed RWMA using transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) based on the 17-segment model.

Main Results:

• Patients with USELP showed increased left ventricular (LV) dimensions, reduced LV ejection fraction, mitral valve disease, and RWMA.
• RWMA was significantly associated with USELP (OR 7.02, p<0.001) after adjusting for multiple variables.

Conclusions:

• RWMA is a significant predictor for undetermined embolic stroke.
• RWMA is highly correlated with imaging evidence of an embolic source.