Figure 1. Flow chart of patient recruitment.

Neurologists recruited consecutive patients with acute ischemic stroke/TIA with undetermined etiology or a suspicion of cardiogenic etiology. Stroke/TIA patients with atrial fibrillation were excluded. Thirteen patients were excluded from the study after recruitment. The remaining patients were subjected to thorough clinical, cardiological and radiological examinations. Patients were further categorized according to the TOAST classification, denoting five subtypes of ischemic stroke: 1) large-artery atherosclerosis, 2) cardioembolism, 3) small-vessel occlusion, 4) stroke of other determined etiology, and 5) stroke of undetermined etiology. The classification was updated by applying the more recent EAE recommendations for defining cardiac sources of embolism.