To elucidate underlying disease mechanisms, we compared transition of gadolinium-based contrast agent bolus in cardiac chambers in magnetic resonance imaging between young patents with cryptogenic ischemic stroke and stroke-free controls. We included 30 patients aged 18-50 years with cryptogenic ischemic stroke from the prospective Searching for Explanations for Cryptogenic Stroke in the Young: Revealing the Etiology, Triggers and Outcome (NCT01934725) study and 30 age- and gender-matched…

CONCLUSIONS: Higher CIMT and PWV were associated to higher age, male sex, and several well-documented cardiovascular risk factors. However, in this study we could not prove that either covert atherosclerosis or arterial stiffness contribute to pathogenesis of early-onset CIS.

CONCLUSIONS: Abdominal obesity measured with WHR was an independent risk factor for CIS in young adults after rigorous adjustment for concomitant risk factors.

CONCLUSIONS: Calculated LA volume accuracy did not improve by using LA long axis-oriented images for volume calculation in comparison to conventional method. We present novel data on LA axis orientation and a novel metric of LA sphericity and conclude that these measures cannot be utilized to assess error in LA volume calculation.

CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests bi-atrial dysfunction in young adults with cryptogenic stroke, associated with moderate-to-severe RLS. Dysfunction of the atria and atrial appendages may be an additional mechanism for PFO-related stroke.

CONCLUSIONS: Young cryptogenic stroke patients have subtly altered systolic function compared to healthy controls, found merely with longitudinal strain analysis. This infers that the heart may play a role in the pathogenesis of cryptogenic ischemic stroke.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the association between migraine and cryptogenic ischemic stroke (CIS) in young adults, with subgroup analyses stratified by sex and presence of patent foramen ovale (PFO).

CONCLUSIONS: LV non-compaction is associated with a heightened risk of cryptogenic ischemic stroke in young adults, independent of concomitant RLS and in the absence of cardiomyopathy.

CONCLUSION: Our study displayed subtle differences in diastolic function between patients and stroke-free controls, which may play a role in early-onset cryptogenic stroke. The differences were clearer when the lowest tertiles were compared, suggesting that there is a subgroup of young cryptogenic stroke patients with subclinical heart disease.

Background Ischemic stroke in young individuals often remains cryptogenic. Some of these strokes likely originate from the heart, and atrial fibrosis might be one of the etiological mechanisms. In this pilot study, we investigated whether advanced echocardiography findings of the left atrium (LA) of young cryptogenic stroke patients differ from those of stroke-free controls. Methods and Results We recruited 30 cryptogenic ischemic stroke patients aged 18 to 49 years and 30 age- and sex-matched…

CONCLUSIONS: A detailed assessment of both conventional and unconventional vascular risk factors and cardiac imaging with transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography are implemented in SECRETO, aiming to establish indirect and direct risk factors and causes for cryptogenic stroke and novel pathophysiological brain-heart pathways. This may ultimately enable more personalized therapeutic options for these patients.

BACKGROUND: Worldwide, about 1.3 million annual ischaemic strokes (IS) occur in adults aged