Predicting asymptomatic coronary artery disease in patients with ischemic stroke and transient ischemic attack: the PRECORIS score.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Identifying occult coronary artery stenosis may improve secondary prevention of stroke patients. The aim of this study was to derive and validate a simple score to predict severe occult coronary artery stenosis in stroke patients. METHODS We derived a score from a French hospital-based cohort of consecutive patients (n=300) who had an ischemic stroke or a transient ischemic attack and no previous history of coronary heart disease (Predicting Asymptomatic Coronary Artery Disease in Patients With Ischemic Stroke and Transient Ischemic Attack [PRECORIS] score) and validated the score in a similar Korean cohort (n=1602). In both cohorts, severe coronary artery stenosis was defined by the presence of at least 1≥50% coronary artery stenosis as detected by 64-section CT coronary angiography. RESULTS A 5-point score (Framingham Risk Score-predicted 10-year coronary heart disease risk [≥20%=3; 10-19%=1; <10%=0] and cervicocephalic artery stenosis [≥50%=2; <50%=1; none=0]) was predictive of occult≥50% coronary artery stenosis risk in the derivation cohort (C-statistic=0.77 [0.70-0.84]) and in the validation cohort (C-statistic=0.66 [0.63-0.68]). The predictive ability of the score was even stronger when only ≥50% left main trunk disease or 3-vessel disease were considered (C-statistic=0.83 [0.74-0.92] and 0.70 [0.66-0.74] in derivation and validation cohorts, respectively). The prevalence of occult≥50% coronary artery stenosis and ≥50% left main trunk or 3-vessel disease increased gradually with the PRECORIS score, reaching 44.2% and 13.5% in derivation cohort and 49.8% and 12.8% in validation cohort in patients with a PRECORIS score≥4. CONCLUSIONS The PRECORIS score can identify a population of stroke or transient ischemic attack patients with a high prevalence of occult severe coronary artery stenosis.