Prevention of recurrent stroke: Response to the letter by arugaslan et al

Arugaslan et al raise some points in their letter entitled “Role ofRhythm Control in Prevention of Recurrent Stroke.”1As we report in our article, rhythm control strategy is associated with decreased rates of recurrent stroke in patients withatrial fibrillation (AF).2 Arugaslan et al1 mention that the average age in our study group is below 65 years. Atrial fibrillationis more problematic in elderly patients especially after cardioversion.3 The patients were randomly included in our study,2and we did not aim to select patients younger than 65 years.Hence, further studies are needed to study the characteristicsand course of AF in the elderly patients.