Objective To study the risk factors for progressive cardiogenic stroke (CS).Methods Seventy-one acute ischemic stroke patients admitted to our hospital from 2008-08-01 to 2014-12-31 were divided into progressive CS group (n=14) and non-progressive CS group (n=57).The NIHSS was used to assess the neurologic deficit when the patients were admitted and 30 days after the stroke onset.Their clinical data were retrospectively analyzed.The risk factors for progressive CS were analyzed by univariate logistic regression analysis and multivariate logistic regression analysis respectively,their critical thresholds were analyzed according to the ROC curve.Results The NIHSS improvent of the progressive CS group was significantly less than that of the non-progressive CS group (P＜0.01).The age was significantly older,the incidence of right-side infarction and the serum level of D-dimer were significantly higher while the serum level of glutamic pyruvic transaminase was significantly lower in progressive CS group than in non-progressive CS group (77.29±8.87 years vs 71.44±9.51 years,P=0.041;71.4％ vs 33.3％,P=0.009;2.82 mg/L vs 0.91 mg/L,P=0.048;13.79±4.44 U/L vs 21.98±17.34 U/L,P=0.002).Lo gistic regression analysis showed a significant difference in age,right-side infarction and serum D-dimer level between the two groups (P=0.030,P=0.007,P=0.025).The area under the ROC curve revealed that age ＞ 70.75 years and serum D-dimer level ＞1.23 mg/L were the risk factors for progressive CS.Conclusion Age,right-side infarction and serum D-dimer level are the risk factors for progressive CS and can thus be used as predictors of progressive CS.