Deans' stroke musings: Subclinical Tachyarrhythmias Tied to Increased Risk of StrokeBe careful after your pacemaker or defibrillator implantation

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Subclinical Tachyarrhythmias Tied to Increased Risk of StrokeBe careful after your pacemaker or defibrillator implantation

Be careful after your pacemaker or defibrillator implantation.
http://www.doctorslounge.com/index.php/news/pb/25914
Subclinical atrial tachyarrhythmias, which occur in approximately 10 percent of patients in the first three months after pacemaker or defibrillator implantation, are associated with an increased risk of clinical atrial fibrillation, stroke, and systemic embolism, according to a study published in the Jan. 12 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Jeff S. Healey, M.D., of McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, and colleagues investigated whether subclinical episodes of tachyarrhythmia (defined as atrial rate >190 beats per minute for more than six minutes), detected by an implanted pacemaker or defibrillator, were associated with an increased risk of ischemic stroke. Participants included 2,580 patients, aged 65 years or older, with hypertension and no history of atrial fibrillation. Patients were monitored for three months and the primary outcome of ischemic stroke or systemic embolism was assessed during a mean follow-up of 2.5 years.

The investigators found that subclinical atrial tachyarrhythmias were detected in 10.1 percent of patients by three months. These tachyarrhythmias were associated with a significantly increased risk of clinical atrial fibrillation (hazard ratio [HR], 5.56). They were also associated with a significantly increased risk of ischemic stroke or systemic embolism (HR, 2.49), which remained significant after adjusting for predictors of stroke (HR, 2.5). There was a 13 percent population-attributable risk of stroke or systemic embolism associated with subclinical atrial tachyarrhythmias.

"The occurrence of subclinical atrial tachyarrhythmias was associated with a significantly increased risk of a subsequent stroke," the authors write.

Several authors disclosed financial ties to pharmaceutical, medical device, and medical technology companies, including St. Jude Medical, which funded the study.