Cardioembolic ischemic stroke risk factors in Yakutia

Cardioembolic ischemic stroke is a pressing issue of vascular neurology. The cardioembolic stroke proportion in the overall stroke structure does not tend to decrease (Bembenek J.P et al, 2015). Studies conducted in European and Asian populations have found that a significant proportion of cardioembolic stroke patients did not receive an anticoagulant therapy for the disease prevention (AndrikopoulosG. et al., 2014; Nakamura A. et al., 2016). Features of clinical characteristics and disease risk factors in the population of Yakutia need an additional research. This study was conducted to investigate cardioembolic ischemic stroke risk factors in the group of patients hospitalized in the Regional Vascular Center (Yakutsk). The study group included 86 patients with acute cardioembolic stroke. It was found that the most common disease risk factor was the atrial fibrillation. In 87.2 % of patients, the disease developed due to the non-valvular atrial fibrillation, in 2.3 % - due to prosthetic heart valves, in 10.5 % - due to a combination of these pathologies. The permanent form of atrial fibrillation was diagnosed in 82.1 %, the persistent form in 11.9 %, the paroxysmal form in 6 %. In 46.5 % of cases, it was a recurrent stroke. Less than in half of the cases (48.8 %), patients received the anticoagulant therapy for primary and secondary stroke prevention. 91,9 % of the patients who received vitamin K antagonists had the subtherapeutic level of hypocoagulation at the stroke onset. It is necessary to optimize the strategy of the cardioembolic stroke prevention, including improved patient’s compliance to anticoagulant therapy and effectively controlling the level of hypocoagulation.

cardioembolic ischemic stroke, risk factor, atrial fibrillation, anticoagulant therapy, warfarin, international normalized ratio, antiplatelet agents, hypocoagulation, stroke prevention, vitamin K antagonist

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