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Background: Our aim was to analyze the incidence of P-wave abnormalities in embolic and non-embolic strokes, and evaluate its clinical usefulness for predicting stroke etiology., Methods: We included 376 consecutive patients hospitalized for acute ischemic stroke from January 2015 to September 2021. Among the patients in sinus rhythm at admission, 31 had ischemic stroke due to atrial fibrillation (AF)-related embolism, 59 had embolic stroke of unknown source (ESUS), and 143 had non-embolic stroke. P-wave abnormalities were defined as 1. P-wave axis abnormality (PWAA); 2. P-wave terminal force in V 1 (PTFV1) ≤ -4000 μV*ms; 3. advanced inter-atrial block (A-IAB)., Results: The prevalence of each type of abnormality was consistently lower in patients with non-embolic stroke than in those with AF-related embolism (AF-related vs. ESUS vs. non-embolic; PWAA, 45% vs. 20% vs. 14%; PTFV1, 36% vs. 37% vs. 15%; and A-IAB, 55% vs. 31% vs. 13%, respectively). The identification of at least one type of P-wave abnormality improved the sensitivity compared to using a single abnormality parameter (sensitivity 72%, specificity 62%), while at least two types of abnormality had low sensitivity, but high specificity (sensitivity 29%, specificity 95%). Multivariate regression analysis revealed that identification of at least one type of P-wave abnormality was independently associated with embolic stroke (odds ratio 3.11, 95%CI 1.46-6.63)., Conclusions: The incidence of each type of P-wave abnormality was significantly lower in patients with non-embolic stroke. A combination of PWAA, PTFV1, and A-IAB parameters could be useful for distinguishing embolic from non-embolic stroke., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Patients with certain CYP2C9 genetic variants have increased sensitivity to warfarin and are at increased risk of over-coagulation with standard warfarin dose. We report over-anticoagulation and hematuria manifest as a slow increase in the international normalized ratio (INR) due to warfarin treatment in a patient with the CYP2C9*3/*3 allele., Case: A 58-y-old man with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation received a standard warfarin dose of 2.0mg/day. Because INR was 2.00 one week after treatment initiation, he was discharged from the hospital. One month later, hematuria was present and INR had increased to 7.26. Although in normal cases (R)-warfarin plasma concentrations are higher than (S)-warfarin, this patient had the opposite warfarin enantiomer plasma concentration profile., Conclusions: Increased anticoagulation was due to an increased concentration of (S)-warfarin, the more active warfarin enantiomer. INR response to warfarin in this CYP2C9*3/*3 patient was slow. The later INR response appears to be strongly affected by CYP2C9 variants. He also had the VKORC1 -1639G>A AA genotype, requiring a lower warfarin dose. In this case, increased risk of bleeding could have been identified by prospective genotyping of CYP2C9 and VKORC1 prior to initiating warfarin therapy., (Copyright 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)