The Interaction of Cardiac IEDs and Patent Foramen Ovale in Ischemic Stroke

Researchers for this paper hypothesized that the presence of a cardiac implantable electronic device (IED) would magnify the relationship between patent foramen ovale (PFO) and ischemic stroke. They included 7,089 (51% female) consecutive first ischemic stroke patients admitted to a single center and enrolled in a prospectively managed stroke registry over a 9 year period. Their results shoed that echocardiography diagnosed PFO in 10,7% and cardiac IED was reported on chest radiography in 10.6% of patients. The prevalence of cardiac IED was lower in the PFO group compared to controls (8.0% vs. 10.9%, respectively; P=0.015). The authors concluded that “we did not find a higher prevalence of CIED in patients with PFO compared to controls,” and that therefore the presence of CIED did not increase the PFO‐associated ischemic stroke risk.”

Agboola K, et al. Pacing Clin Electrophysiol. 2019;doi:10.1111/pace.13599

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/pace.13599