Assessment of Left Atrial Functions and Volume by Conventional Echocardiography in Patients with Atrial Arrhythmias

Document Type : Original Article

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Department of Cardiology, Damietta Faculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar University, Egypt

Abstract

Background: Atrial tachyarrhythmia is a significant problem. The LA mechanical and pathological changes and its assessment usually share in treatment plan. Advanced tools are available. However, less advanced tools could have their role, especially in resource limited facilities.
Aim of the work: The current work aimed to assess left atrial function and volume by trans-thoracic echocardiography among patients with atrial arrhythmias.
Patients and Methods: One hundred patients with atrial tachyarrhythmia’s and 30 healthy individual [as a control group] were included in the current study. All patients had been evaluated by history taking and clinical examination. Then, all were subjected to resting electrocardiogram and standard resting transthoracic echocardiography [TTE].
Results: The study and control groups revealed non-significant difference regarding patient age, gender, diabetes and thyroid disease. There was female sex predilection [69% in study and 63.0% in control group].  Hypertension and smoking were significantly increased among study than control group [40.0%, 20.0% vs 10.0% and 3.3% respectively]. Arrhythmias were in the form of fibrillation [80.0%], tachycardia [14%] and flutter [6.0%]. There was significant difference between study and control groups regarding clinical data, echocardiography, Doppler indices and LA volume. However, LVEF%, LA diameter and pulmonary S wave velocity did not significantly differ between groups.  The different types of arrhythmia revealed significant increase of pEF, LA diameter and tissue Doppler among flutter than AF and AT. Otherwise, there was no significant differences regard other clinical data, echocardiography and Doppler indices.
Conclusion: AF has effect on structural and functional remodeling of the LA function, and AF had more harmful effect than tachycardia and flutter and it may add significant value for development of HF. The conventional echocardiography could be considered a reliable assessment tool for atrial function in patients with atrial arrhythmias.

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