Atrial fibrillation (AF)—whether paroxysmal or sustained—increases the risk of stroke. We developed and validated a risk score for identifying patients at risk of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (pAF) after acute ischemic stroke (AIS). A total of 6033 patients with AIS who received 24 h Holter monitoring were identified in the Chang Gung Research Database. Among the identified patients, 5290 with pAF and without AF were included in the multivariable logistic regression analysis to develop the pAF prediction model. The ABCD-SD score (Age, Systolic Blood pressure, Coronary artery disease, Dyslipidemia, and Standard Deviation of heart rate) comprises age (+2 points for every 10 years), systolic blood pressure (−1 point for every 20 mmHg), coronary artery disease (+2 points), dyslipidemia (−2 points), and standard deviation of heart rate (+2 points for every 3 beats per minute). Overall, 5.2% (274/5290) of patients had pAF. The pAF risk ranged from 0.8% (ABCD-SD score ≤ 7) to 18.3% (ABCD-SD score ≥ 15). The model achieved an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROCC) of 0.767 in the model development group. The ABCD-SD score could aid clinicians in identifying patients with AIS at risk of pAF for advanced cardiac monitoring.

This cross-sectional study assessed the association of eating behavior, nutritional risk, and frailty with sarcopenia in 208 community-dwelling individuals aged ≥65 years who were recruited from random rural community care centers in Chiayi County, Taiwan. The participants’ eating behavior was categorized into six categories. The gait speed (GS), grip strength, and appendicular skeletal muscle mass (ASM) were assessed based on these three parameters, which revealed that 50.9% of the participants had sarcopenia. In an adjusted model, water intake (odds ratio (OR) = 0.99, p = 0.044), dairy product intake (OR = 0.42, p = 0.049), body mass index (BMI) (OR = 0.77, p = 0.019), and marital status with widowed (OR = 0.31, p = 0.005) were significantly associated with sarcopenia. After eight steps of eliminating the least significant independent variable, age (p = 0.002), sex (p = 0.000), marital status with widowed (p = 0.001), water intake (p < 0.018), dairy product intake (p < 0.019), and BMI (p = 0.005) were found to be indispensable predictors of sarcopenia. The logistic regression model with these six indispensable variables had a predictive value of 75.8%. Longitudinal analyses are warranted to examine whether eating behavior is a risk factor for sarcopenia onset.

Background: To evaluate the association between the visit-to-visit heart rate variability and the risk of atrial fibrillation (AF) in acute ischemic stroke (AIS). Methods: We analyzed the data of 8179 patients with AIS. Patients without AF on 12-lead electrocardiography underwent further 24 h Holter monitoring. They were categorized into four subgroups according to the visit-to-visit heart rate variability expressed as the coefficient of variation in heart rate (HR-CV). Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using the HR-CV < 0.08 subgroup as a reference. Results: The adjusted OR of paroxysmal AF was 1.866 (95% CI = 1.205–2.889) for the HR-CV ≥ 0.08 and <0.10 subgroup, 1.889 (95% CI = 1.174–3.038) for the HR-CV ≥ 0.10 and <0.12 subgroup, and 5.564 (95% CI = 3.847–8.047) for the HR-CV ≥ 0.12 subgroup. The adjusted OR of persistent AF was 2.425 (95% CI = 1.921–3.062) for the HR-CV ≥ 0.08 and <0.10 subgroup, 4.312 (95% CI = 3.415–5.446) for the HR-CV ≥ 0.10 and <0.12 subgroup, and 5.651 (95% CI = 4.586–6.964) for the HR-CV ≥ 0.12 subgroup. Conclusions: HR-CV can facilitate the identification of patients with AIS at a high risk of paroxysmal AF.