RESEARCH ARTICLE

Prevention Strategies for Cardioembolic Stroke: Present and Future Perspectives

Giacomo Giacalone, * Open Modal , 1 Mohammed Abballa Abbas1 , 2 Francesco Corea, * Open Modal , 1 , 3 Authors Info & Affiliations
The Open Neurology Journal 15 June 2010 RESEARCH ARTICLE DOI: 10.2174/1874205X01004010056

Abstract

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cause of cardioembolism. An update on secondary prevention strategies, used to protect patients from the risk of stroke in many common cardiac conditions, is presented in the paper. The main line of actions of stroke prevention in cardioembolism is mostly connected with antithrombotic drugs, but also other, more invasive, techniques are quickly emerging. Also the classic pharmacological prevention with coumarins may soon be overcome by new generation anticoagulants. Is an aggressive treatment of Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO) always recommended? One of the main challenges of the future years will be to understand competitiveness between old and new preventive strategies.

Keywords: Cardioembolic stroke, risk factors, secondary prevention, antithrombotic drugs, atrial fibrillation, PFO.
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