Two new studies looked at people who had ischemic strokes of unknown origin in hopes of learning why the strokes were occurring, and what if anything can be done to prevent these patients from having further strokes.

You can read an article summarizing these new studies here:

[Studies urge longer heart monitoring for stroke patients][1]

Every year, approximately 125,000 patients have ischemic strokes and their doctors don’t know why. Without the “why,” doctors can’t form the best plans to prevent these patients from having additional strokes.

Currently, such patients are monitored for 24 hours to rule out atrial fibrillation, a condition in which erratic electrical signals cause the heart to contract abnormally, causing blood to pool and form clots that can then travel to the brain and cause strokes.

This new research suggests that 24 hours is not enough, and these patients should be monitored for 30 days, often with monitors the patient can wear outside of the hospital. Hopefully such monitoring will effectively diagnose atrial fibrillation, and allow doctors to more aggressively treat it and prevent further strokes and death.

Although this may not be the standard of care at the moment, it may be in the near future.

[1]: http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2023928323_strokerhythmxml.html “Studies urge longer heart monitoring for stroke patients”