Researchers help develop technique for assessing, reducing risk of future stroke
Using health records, Stanford researchers developed an algorithm for scoring the risk of a stroke patient experiencing a heart condition known as atrial fibrillation, a major risk factor for a second stroke. One stroke is dangerous, and a second, even more so. One important risk factor for that perilous second stroke is an irregular heart beat called atrial fibrillation. If doctors could identify the stroke patients who are most likely to experience atrial fibrillation, they could start treatments that would help prevent a second stroke. But which stroke patients are at risk for the condition has been hard to predict without costly 24/7 monitoring for the hundreds of thousands of people who have a first stroke every year. Now, a team led by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Santa Clara Valley Medical Center has used electronic medical records to predict the likelihood of a person experiencing atrial fibrillation after either...