A Clinical Score for Predicting Atrial Fibrillation in Patients with Cryptogenic Stroke or Transient Ischemic Attack

What protocol is your doctor doing to detect if you have atrial fibrillation? And for how long? I don't recall my doctor doing anything, I never heard it mentioned. I never had a medical history taken from me. My dad had a carotid endarterectomy when his blockage got to 80%. My brother was a blue baby where the hole between the right and left atriums never closed up. So since they never found my right carotid blockage the stroke could have come from a PFO.
https://www.karger.com/Article/Abstract/476030

Kwong C.^a · Ling A.Y.^c · Crawford M.H.^e · Zhao S.X.^b · Shah N.H.^d
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Keywords: Atrial fibrillationCryptogenic strokeRhythm monitoringCardiovascular risk and prevention

Cardiology 2017;138:133-140

https://doi.org/10.1159/000476030

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Abstract

Objectives: Detection of atrial fibrillation (AF) in post-cryptogenic stroke (CS) or transient ischemic attack (TIA) patients carries important therapeutic implications.  
Methods: To risk stratify CS/TIA patients for later development of AF, we conducted a retrospective cohort study using data from 1995 to 2015 in the Stanford Translational Research Integrated Database Environment (STRIDE).  
Results: Of the 9,589 adult patients (age ≥40 years) with CS/TIA included, 482 (5%) patients developed AF post CS/TIA. Of those patients, 28.4, 26.3, and 45.3% were diagnosed with AF 1-12 months, 1-3 years, and >3 years after the index CS/TIA, respectively. Age (≥75 years), obesity, congestive heart failure, hypertension, coronary artery disease, peripheral vascular disease, and valve disease are significant risk factors, with the following respective odds ratios (95% CI): 1.73 (1.39-2.16), 1.53 (1.05-2.18), 3.34 (2.61-4.28), 2.01 (1.53-2.68), 1.72 (1.35-2.19), 1.37 (1.02-1.84), and 2.05 (1.55-2.69). A risk-scoring system, i.e., the HAVOC score, was constructed using these 7 clinical variables that successfully stratify patients into 3 risk groups, with good model discrimination (area under the curve = 0.77).  
Conclusions: Findings from this study support the strategy of looking longer and harder for AF in post-CS/TIA patients. The HAVOC score identifies different levels of AF risk and may be used to select patients for extended rhythm monitoring.