Prevention of Cardioembolic Stroke

It is a necessary oversimplification to emphasize that treatment decisions about a disorder are based on knowledge of its cause. This is true in stroke as in other conditions. In applying this principle to cardioembolic stroke, one must deal with several difficult clinical problems. Does the patient have a cardiac disorder that may cause a stroke via embolic mechanisms, and so be treated in an attempt to prevent the first stroke? What are the risks of treatment compared to the potential benefits? Does the patient have a cardiac disorder that could have caused the stroke? Does the patient have noncardiac potential causes for his or her stroke? Is there any way to determine which of multiple possible stroke mechanisms actually caused the stroke? If a patient suffers a cardioembolic stroke, when should treatment to prevent a recurrence begin? One of these clinical questions arises in most patients with ischemic stroke.