The study looked at 980 patients with an average age of 46 who had suffered a cryptogenic stroke within 270 days of joining the study.

WSJ: Doctors Debate Whether Strokes Be Prevented With a Heart-Plug Procedure

New research has found that patients with cryptogenic stroke may be suffering from an irregular heartbeat condition known as atrial fibrillation, a known cause of stroke.

WSJ: Doctors Debate Whether Strokes Be Prevented With a Heart-Plug Procedure

The research suggests that current monitoring of patients with cryptogenic strokes for atrial fibrillation may not be long enough, which is why the condition has gone undetected.

WSJ: Doctors Debate Whether Strokes Be Prevented With a Heart-Plug Procedure

"If I were 45 years old and I had a prior cryptogenic stroke and a PFO, I'd get my hole closed, " said Frank Callaghan, president of St.

WSJ: Doctors Debate Whether Strokes Be Prevented With a Heart-Plug Procedure

Referrals for PFO closure began picking up steam in the 1990s as new imaging techniques showed that a large percentage of patients with cryptogenic strokes had the flap.

WSJ: Doctors Debate Whether Strokes Be Prevented With a Heart-Plug Procedure

Doctors, however, theorize it may be a factor in 45% of the approximately 275, 000 strokes in the U.S. each year that occur without a known trigger, called cryptogenic strokes.

WSJ: Doctors Debate Whether Strokes Be Prevented With a Heart-Plug Procedure

The PC T rial (Clinical Trial Comparing Percutaneous Closure of Patent Foramen Ovale Using the Amplatzer PFO Occluder with Medical Treatment in Patients with Cryptogenic Embolism) randomized 414 patients with PFO who had had an ischemic stroke, TIA, or a peripheral thromboembolic event to either medical therapy or PFO closure with the Amplatzer PFO Occluder.

FORBES: Controversial PFO Closure Trials Published In NEJM