Regularly monitoring your pulse after suffering an initial stroke may help to ward off experiencing a second stroke, according to a new study.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), strokes kill nearly 130,000 Americans every year — the equivalent of one out of every 19 deaths.

Study author Bernd Kallmünzer, MD, with Erlangen University in Erlangen, Germany, and colleagues looked at 256 individuals who had previously suffered an acute ischemic stroke. The relatives of these patients were asked to regularly measure the pulses to check for any signs of an irregular heartbeat. From this information, which was compared to a mechanical recording of the heart’s electrical activity, 57 of the study’s participants experienced irregular heartbeats.

Patients who took their own pulse measurements had an 89 percent reliability rate.

“Screening pulse is the method of choice for checking for irregular heartbeat for people over age 65 who have never had a stroke. Our study shows it may be a safe, effective, noninvasive and easy way to identify people who might need more thorough monitoring to prevent a second stroke,” said Kallmünzer in a statement.

The findings of the study are published in the online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.