We present a case of left atrial appendage (LAA) aneurysm and atrial septal defect in a 1-year-old child without cardiovascular symptoms referred for cardiac murmurs and cardiomegaly and diagnosed by 2and 3-dimensional transthoracic echocardiography. Subcostal and apical views showed a wide, fenestrated ostium secundum-type atrial septal defect with redundant septum (Fig. 1, arrow). The right-s...

An 80-year-old man was admitted to our center because of recurrent ischemic strokes. Notably, the patient had recently been diagnosed with adenocarcinoma of the lung and was waiting to start radiation therapy. In addition, he was receiving chronic anticoagulation therapy with a coumarin derivative for permanent atrial fibrillation and maintained adequate international normalized ratio (INR) con...

Atrial fibrillation is the most common cardiac arrhythmias, and a major cause of morbidity and mortality due to cardioembolic stroke. The left atrial appendage is the major site of thrombus formation in non-valvular atrial fibrillation. Loss of atrial systole in atrial fibrillation and increased relative risk of associated stroke point strongly toward a role for stasis of blood in left atrial t...

BACKGROUND Atrial 4D flow magnetic resonance imaging was used for the characterization of left atrial (LA) and left atrial appendage (LAA) flow dynamics in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). METHODS AND RESULTS 4D flow magnetic resonance imaging measured in vivo 3D blood flow velocities in 60 AF patients and 15 controls. Anatomic maps of LA and LAA stasis and velocity were calculated to ...

A 46-year-old woman with a 7-year history of profoundly symptomatic daily paroxysmal atrial fibrillation had undergone two percutaneous catheter ablations and multiple medication trials. With informed consent, bilateral pulmonary vein isolation and left atrial appendage occlusion as well as ablation of ganglionated plexi were performed by a totally thoracoscopic technique employing a bipolar ra...

BACKGROUND Detection of atrial fibrillation after ischemic stroke is challenging due to its paroxysmal nature. We aimed to assess predictors of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation using non-invasive surface ECG and transthoracic echocardiography to select candidates for atrial fibrillation screening. METHODS Ischemic stroke patients without documented atrial fibrillation (n = 110, 67 ± 10 years, 4...

background: alcohol consumption has multiple side effects on heart which can be divided to six subgroups: heavy alcohol drinkers (80 g/day alcohol consumption) are most susceptible to cardiac complications. the aim of this study was to review alcohol side effects on heart and two present two alcoholic patients with alcoholic cardiomyopathy. case report: case a: a 52 year-old man presented with ...

BACKGROUND Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) is the gold standard for the exclusion of thrombi in the left atrial appendage (LAA) before ablation for atrial fibrillation. Intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) is used to assist atrial fibrillation ablation; however, it can also be used for LAA imaging. The aim of our study was to determine whether ICE could replace TEE and to identify the opt...

Aneurysm of the left atrial appendage is extremely rare, and afflicted patients most commonly present with atrial tachyarrhythmia or thromboembolism. For these patients, resection of the aneurysm is the recommended and preferred therapy. We present the case of a 57-year-old woman who was found incidentally to have a large aneurysm of the left atrial appendage presenting as atrial fibrillation. ...