The diagnostic efficiency of transesophageal compared to transthoracic echocardiographic findings from 405 patients with ischemic stroke

This study compared the diagnostic efficacy of transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) and transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) for patients with stroke. Examination with TTE was followed by TEE. Stroke causes were classified according to the Trial of Org 10172 in Acute Stroke Treatment (TOAST) and Causative Classification of Stroke (CCS) criteria before and after TEE to determined, cryptogenic or unclassified groups. We identified that 55.1% of patients had a determined etiology for stroke with TTE; adding TEE to the examinations increased the proportion of patients with determined stroke etiology to 69.4% (κ = 0.79). TTE alone showed fair agreement with the combined results of TTE and TEE in determining the cause of stroke in young adults (κ = 0.38). TEE improved the detection of cardio-aortic sources, but had no impact on patients who had a determined cause for stroke with other examinations. TEE examination was most useful in young adults with stroke and in patients with an undetermined cause for stroke despite TTE examination and other standard investigations.