Monitoring Pulse After Stroke May Prevent a Second Stroke

New research suggests that regularly monitoring your pulse after a stroke may be a simple, effective first step in detecting irregular heartbeat. For the study, recently published online in Neurology, 256 people who had experienced acute ischemic stroke and their relatives were given instructions on measuring the pulse to detect irregular heartbeat. The measurements taken from the participants and health care professionals were then compared to a recording of electrical activity in the heart, which showed that 57 of the participants had irregular heartbeats. The study found that pulse measurement taken by health care professionals had a sensitivity of nearly 97 percent and a specificity of 94 percent in detecting irregular heartbeats. For patients’ relatives, the sensitivity was 77 percent and the specificity was 93 percent, while for patients taking their own measurements, 89 percent performed reliable measurements with a sensitivity of 54 percent and specificity of 96 percent. To learn more about the study, click here.