Contribution of Atrial Fibrillation to Incidence and Outcome of Ischemic Stroke

We evaluated the prevalence of AF and its influence on prognosis in patients with a first-ever ischemic stroke from a population-based registry.

The presence of AF at stroke onset and during the acute phase was confirmed by a standard electrocardiogram in 869 (24.6%) of 3530 patients with ischemic stroke. With respect to patients without the arrhythmia, those with AF were more frequently women, aged 80 years and older, with coronary heart disease and peripheral arterial disease. The presence of AF was associated with high 30-day (32.5%; 95% CI, 29.3 to 35.6) and 1-year case-fatality rates (49.5%; 95% CI, 46.2 to 52.8), with a higher stroke recurrence rate within the first year of follow-up (6.6% versus 4.4%; P=0.046) and with the worst survival after an average follow-up of 45.2 months (P