Higher plasma BNP levels on admission are independently predictive of a cardioembolic stroke mechanism and also serve as prognostic biomarkers for poor functional outcomes at 90 days, even after adjusting for confounding factors such as atrial fibrillation (AF) and congestive heart failure (Chaudhuri et al., 2015; Maruyama et al., 2017). The gene discussed is NPPB; the disease is atrial fibrillation.