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Current guidelines recommend that patients with an ischemic stroke and reduced ejection fraction (EF) receive antiplatelet therapy instead of anticoagulation for secondary stroke prevention. However, the trials that led to this recommendation are dated, and some patients with left ventricular (LV) dysfunction might benefit more from anticoagulation ().
To explore this further, researchers retrospectively studied 2300 patients with stroke of unknown cause at 27 U.S. centers, comparing outcomes between those who were prescribed antiplatelet therapy at discharge and those who were prescribed anticoagulation. Roughly 13% of the patients had LV injury, defined by either an ejection fraction of ≤40% or an LV wall motion abnormality.…