A single center study on the correlation between Cryptogenic stroke and right-to-left shunt by contrast enhanced transcranial doppler in Liaoning province / 中风与神经疾病杂志

ABSTRACT

@#Objective　To investigate the prevalence of right-to-left shunt（RLS） in cryptogenic stroke patients and analyze the relationship between cryptogenic stroke and RLS. Methods　We enrolled 44 cryptogenic stroke patients between 18-55 years old as case grope and 33 healthy volunteers as control group，using contrast enhanced transcranial doppler（cTCD） and contrast transthoracic echocardiography（cTTE） for diagnosis of RLS and grade，the positive rate of the two groups were statistically analyzed. Results　In the case group，the positive rate of RLS was 47.7%（21 /44），of which large shunt accounted for 27.3%（12/44）. In the control group，the positive rate of RLS was 30.3%（10 /33），of which large shunt accounted for 9%（3/33）. Comparison of two groups of the total positive rate，the total positive rate of case group was same to the control group，there was not statistically significant difference（χ2=2.380，P=0.123） ．Large shunt rate in case group was significantly higher than the control group（χ2=3.974，P=0.042）. Conclusion　cTCD is a responsible approach to diagnose RLS. Cryptogenic stroke is related to RLS，and the large shunt may be the important cause of cryptogenic stroke，which should be paid more attention to.