Long-Term Outcomes of Real-World Korean Patients with Atrial-Fibrillation-Related Stroke and Severely Decreased Ejection Fraction

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSEThe clinical implications of echocardiography findings for long-term outcomes in atrial fibrillation (AF)-related stroke patients are unknown. METHODSThis was a substudy of the Korean ATrial fibrillaTion EvaluatioN regisTry in Ischemic strOke patieNts (K-ATTENTION), which is a multicenter-based cohort comprising prospective stroke registries from 11 tertiary centers. Stroke survivors who underwent two-dimensional transthoracic echocardiography during hospitalization were enrolled. Echocardiography markers included the left-ventricle (LV) ejection fraction (LVEF), the left atrium diameter, and the ratio of the peak transmitral filling velocity to the mean mitral annular velocity during early diastole (E/e' ratio). LVEF was categorized into normal (≥55%), mildly decreased (>40% and