Prevention of cardioembolic stroke.

ABSTRACT: Cardiac causes of ischemic stroke lead to severe neurological deficits from large intracranial artery occlusion compared to small vessel ischemic stroke. The most common cause of cardioembolic stroke is atrial fibrillation (AF), which has an increasing incidence with age. AF stroke trials demonstrate that anti-coagulation is superior to anti-platelet therapy in terms of ischemic stroke prevention. Recently, warfarin was compared with dabigatran, an oral, direct thrombin inhibitor, and was found to be at least equally effective in reducing ischemic stroke with less intracranial bleeding risk. Future research is investigating other direct thrombin inhibitors as potential alternatives to warfarin, which has a narrow therapeutic index, requires frequent blood monitoring, has multiple drug inte

SUBMITTER: Freeman WD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3250282 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature