FREQUENCY OF ATRIAL FIBRILLATION IN PATIENTS WITH ACUTE ISCHEMIC STROKE

Abstract

Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is important but treatable causes of disabling ischemic stroke like other modifiable risk factors it also need early identification and appropriate management to prevent stroke occurrence and recurrence. However intermittent, silent AF makes it difficult to estimate the accurate prevalence of this potentially treatable cause of ischemic stroke. Atrial fibrillation may be the first presentation of ischemic stroke and stroke recurrence in spite of good compliance with antithrombotic therapy, such patients need appropriate protection and should be simultaneously evaluated for other risk factors moreover such subjects are considered as high risk for stroke recurrence, Objective: To Establish the frequency of atrial fibrillation in acute ischemic stroke patients visiting Liaquat University hospital. Material and method: This is descriptive cross sectional study conducted at Neurology department of Liaquat University of medical and health sciences Jamshoro from 25th November 2017 to 25th July 2020. The Data was collected by non-probability consecutive sampling technique. Patients with acute ischemic stroke of both gender of age between 30-80 years were included in the study. Results: A total of 112 patients with acute ischemic stroke were included. 66 patients (58.9%) were male & 46 (41.1%) were female, with the mean age of 55.34±8.17 years. Mean BMI was 32.56±4.35 kg/m2. 9 patients (8%) had family history of atrial fibrillation, while 12 (10.7%) had family history of ischemic stroke. The outcome (atrial fibrillation) was seen in 16 patients (14.3%). Conclusion: In conclusion frequency of AF among patients with acute ischemic stroke is 14.3%, more in male gender