Clinical value of left atrial appendage flow for prediction of long-term sinus rhythm maintenance in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation
Emanuele Antonielli, MD*,
Alfredo Pizzuti, MD ,
Attila Pálinkás, MD ,
Mattia Tanga, MD*,
N. oèmi Gruber, MD,
Claudio Michelassi, BSc ,
Albert Varga, MD,
Alessandro Bonzano, MD,
Nicola Gandolfo, MD,
L.ászló Halmai, MD,
Antonia Bassignana, MD*,
Muhammad Babar Imran, MD,
Fabrizio Delnevo, MD,
Miklós Csanády, MD and
Eugenio Picano, MD, PhD,*
* Divisione di Cardiologia, Ospedale SS. Annunziata, Savigliano, Italy
Divisione di Cardiologia, Ospedale Mauriziano, Umberto I, Torino, Italy
Second Department of Medicine and Cardiology Center, Albert Szent-Györgyi Medical Faculty, University of Sciences, Szeged, Hungary
National Research Council, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Institute of Clinical Physiology, Pisa, Italy
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Figure 1 Receiver-operating curves of left atrial appendage (LAA) flow, atrial fibrillation (AF) duration, left atrial (LA) diameter and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) for prediction of one-year maintenance of sinus rhythm. The area under the curve is given. CI = confidence interval.
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Figure 2 Pulsed Doppler tracing of the left atrial appendage (LAA) obtained by transesophageal echocardiography in atrial fibrillation showing high peak emptying flow velocity signals in a patient who preserved the sinus rhythm for one year. The mean LAA flow peak anterograde velocity was 52 cm/s.
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Figure 3 Pulsed Doppler tracing of the left atrial appendage (LAA) obtained by transesophageal echocardiography in atrial fibrillation (AF) showing low peak emptying flow velocity signals in a patient with AF relapse during the follow-up. The mean LAA peak anterograde velocity was 18 cm/s.
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