Heart Pouch May Explain Potentially Important Cause Of Strokes
Category: Personal Injury
Author: Georgina Tyburski
Posted: Friday - June 5, 2015
From universityofcalifornia.edu
A pouchlike structure inside the heart’s left atrial chamber in some people may explain strokes that otherwise lack an identifiable cause, according to UC Irvine School of Medicine researchers.
Dr. Mark Fisher, a professor of neurology and pathology & laboratory medicine, and colleagues evaluated 75 stroke patients at UC Irvine Medical Center to learn whether this left atrial septal pouch could be a potent source of stroke-causing blood clots.
Of the 23 patients who had experienced a stroke of undetermined origin (a “cryptogenic” stroke), 30 percent possessed the left atrial septal pouch. It was present in only 10 percent of the 52 patients who’d had a stroke with an identifiable trigger.
