A new study from the University of Minnesota Medical School has found that how well a part of the heart called the left atrium can stretch may help predict a person’s risk of having a stroke or developing dementia.
This discovery could help doctors identify at-risk patients earlier and improve how these conditions are prevented. The findings were published in the medical journal Stroke.
The left atrium is one of the heart’s upper chambers. It plays an important role in helping blood move through the heart and into the rest of the body. Sometimes, this part of the heart doesn’t work properly—a condition known as left atrial myopathy. When this happens, the left atrium becomes stiff or weakened.
While doctors already know that heart problems can increase the risk of stroke and dementia, this study looked at which specific changes in the left atrium might give doctors the best early warning signs.
The research team followed over 4,700 older adults for eight years, tracking whether they developed ischemic stroke or dementia. Ischemic stroke happens when a blood clot blocks blood flow to the brain, and it’s the most common type of stroke. Dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, affects memory, thinking, and daily functioning.
The scientists examined different ways of measuring the left atrium’s health, trying to find the one that best predicted these conditions.
They discovered that the best predictor was something called left atrial reservoir strain—which simply refers to how well the left atrium can stretch or expand when it fills with blood. When this stretching ability is reduced, it can indicate that the heart is under strain or not working as well as it should.
In addition to this heart measurement, the researchers also found that levels of a certain protein in the blood, known as NT-proBNP, slightly improved prediction of stroke and dementia when added to standard risk assessments.
This protein tends to increase when the heart is under stress, so higher levels can signal heart problems. However, the left atrium’s stretching ability still stood out as the most reliable single predictor.
Dr. Lin Yee Chen, who led the study, says these findings may help improve how doctors assess risk in older patients. Right now, doctors use general risk scores that consider things like age, blood pressure, smoking, and diabetes to estimate a person’s chances of having a stroke or cognitive decline.
By adding this new measurement of heart function, doctors might be able to catch risks that those traditional tools miss.
The next step is even more promising. Dr. Chen and his team are planning a larger clinical trial to see if people with signs of left atrial myopathy—identified using the stretching test—could benefit from taking blood thinners, or anticoagulants.
These medications are already widely used to prevent strokes in people with conditions like atrial fibrillation (irregular heartbeat), but this new trial would explore using them for a broader group of patients identified by this heart strain marker, even if they don’t yet have an irregular heartbeat.
In summary, the study offers a potential breakthrough in how doctors assess and manage stroke and dementia risk. If future research confirms these results, a simple heart test could become a key part of routine checkups for older adults—helping doctors act earlier to protect both heart and brain health.
If you care about stroke, please read studies that diets high in flavonoids could help reduce stroke risk, and MIND diet could slow down cognitive decline after stroke.
For more health information, please see recent studies about antioxidants that could help reduce the risk of dementia, and tea and coffee may help lower your risk of stroke, dementia.
The research findings can be found in Stroke.
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