Association of left atrial size between cryptogenic stroke and other stroke etiology in hospitalized patients at Stroke Unit of Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre (HCPA), Brazil

Introduction:
The relationship of atrial fibrillation (AF) and stroke is well known. The significance of left atrial size (LAS) in the context of AF is an important issue because it can be a cause or a consequence of the other. So, can we make association between atrial size and stroke etiology?

Methods:
This is a cross-sectional study developed with patients hospitalized at Stroke Unit of HCPA between January and June of 2018. All patients that were submitted by complete investigation and that stroke etiology was classified by TOAST were included. Patients with indeterminate stroke because two or more determinates causes were excluded. The statistical analysis was make with t-Test; p-value was 0.05.

Objectives:
Test whether if mean of LAS differs between cardioembolic stroke and others etiologies (lacunar, large vessel and others causes) and if this same difference can be find in the cryptogenic stroke.

Results:
Fifty-six patients were included. The frequencies and left atrial size mean is shown in Table 1. Compared to other etiologies of stroke, a statistically significant difference was found between means of cardioembolic stroke (p-value: 0.0018) and cryptogenic stroke (p-value: 0.0012).

Conclusions:
These data point to the ESUS concept (Embolic Stroke of Undetermined Source). As many patients with cryptogenic stroke may present paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, the enlargement of left atrium could mean the reflection of this events.

Association of left atrial size between cryptogenic stroke and other stroke etiology in hospitalized patients at Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre (HCPA), Brazil