Dear Editor, Defining the underlying mechanism of ischemic stroke is one of the cornerstones of secondary prevention, but up to 42% are classified as embolic stroke of undetermined source (ESUS). 1-4 In this setting, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMRI) has been proposed as a tool to further stratify patients with ESUS. 5-8 However, clinical predictors of these CMRI findings are not well studied, which may help to restrict a costlier investigation to high-risk subjects. We aimed to determine the prevalence of abnormalities found in CMRI in patients with ESUS; and to examine which variables are associated with the occurrence of such abnormalities. Consecutive patients admitted to an outpatient university-based stroke clinic were investigated for stroke etiologies using the Causative Classification of Stroke. Patients with ESUS were further investigated with CMRI, using a previously defined protocol. 9 The study was approved by the IRB and patients signed informed consent.

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