Letter by Doğanay et al Regarding Article, “Preexisting Heart Disease Underlies Newly Diagnosed Atrial Fibrillation After Acute Ischemic Stroke”

We read with great interest and excitement the recently published work of Rizos et al about newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation (AF) after acute ischemic stroke and relationship between preexisting heart disease.1 The authors stated that the stroke patients with newly diagnosed AF and with known AF share common cardiovascular risk factors, have similar echocardiographic findings, and suffer equally severe strokes. They also concluded that preexisting heart disease is the major cause of AF that is first diagnosed after stroke. In our letter, we aimed to emphasize another possible mechanism between acute stroke and AF, the contribution …