What is the risk of hemorrhagic transformation in patients with acute ischemic stroke and atrial fibrillation?
A multicenter, prospective international study of consecutive patients with acute ischemic stroke and AF that included a second CT 24 to 72 hours after stroke onset found that the presence of hemorrhagic transformation led to an average delay in anticoagulation CLINICAL STATEMENTS AND GUIDELINES Kleindorfer of 12 days and that this delay was not associated with a significant rise in the rate of recurrent stroke. Large infarcts, for example, the entire territory of either the middle, anterior, or posterior cerebral artery, had nearly twice the risk of hemorrhagic transformation as smaller infarcts in this series.