Recurrence of embolic stroke in non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF). An autopsy study.

From 3434 consecutive autopsied cases over 60 years of age, we performed retrospective, clinicopathological examinations on 81 patients with symptomatic embolic stroke and non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) who had not received anticoagulant therapy during their lives. Twenty-one had recurrent embolic strokes (recurrence rate: 25.9%). In the thrombotic infarction without NVAF, the recurrence rate was 21.4%. Recurrent strokes occurred earlier in the embolic infarction of NVAF than in the thrombotic infarction. Most of the lesions of initial embolic strokes were present in the territory of one middle cerebral artery (MCA), while many lesions of recurrent strokes were found in the territory of the contralateral MCA. Between the NVAF cases with and without recurrent embolic stroke, there was no significant difference in the background condition such as history of hypertension, duration of NVAF, severity of cerebral arterial atherosclerosis, heart weight, intracardiac thrombi, myocardial infarctions and infarctions in other systemic organs.