Feb 17, 2021
AFib diagnosed within 6 months of stroke carries highest risk
People with atrial fibrillation (AFib) detected after ischemic stroke (AFDAS) had higher mortality risk than people who had known atrial fibrillation (KAF) or no AFib at the time of ischemic stroke, a prospective study found.
“The AFDAS group had the highest risk of death, which was not explained by comorbidities or use of antithrombotic therapies,” wrote Rajat Deo, MD, MTR, of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and co-authors in
The researchers classified 1,489 patients with incident first ischemic stroke into four groups: no AFib (n=985), KAF (AFib known before the index stroke, n=215), AFDAS diagnosed within 6 months post-stroke (AFDAS ≤ 6 months, n=160), and AFDAS identified beyond 6 months post-stroke (AFDAS> 6 months, n=129).
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PHILADELPHIA Scientists in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have uncovered the molecular causes of a congenital form of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), an often-fatal heart disorder.
This inherited form of DCM which affects at least several thousand people in the United States at any one time and often causes sudden death or progressive heart failure is one of multiple congenital disorders known to be caused by inherited mutations in a gene called
LMNA. The
LMNA gene is active in most cell types, and researchers have not understood why
LMNA mutations affect particular organs such as the heart while sparing most other organs and tissues.