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Paroxysmal atrial fibrillation: high frequency of embolic brain infarction in elderly autopsy patients
H Yamanouchi1, T Mizutani, S Matsushita
1Department of Neurology, Tokyo Metropolitan Geriatric Hospital, Japan.
Neurology
|December 31, 1997
Abstract:
We examined brains clinicopathologically from 54 consecutive paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF) patients aged 70 years or older and compared them with those of 59 age-matched controls. Symptomatic cerebral infarctions were present in 29 PAF patients (53.7%) and in 13 controls (22.0%) (p < 0.001). Symptomatic brain infarction was 2.4 times more common in PAF cases than in PAF-free controls; approximately 60% of the infarctions in the PAF cases were judged to be cardioembolic in origin. PAF in the elderly can be an important cause for cardiogenic cerebral embolism.