OBJECTIVE To determine whether echocardiographic markers thromboembolic risk differ between patients with pure atrial flutter and patients with atrial flutter and intermittent atrial fibrillation. DESIGN Patients with atrial flutter were followed up prospectively for 12 months to identify intermittent atrial fibrillation. After the follow up period, transthoracic and multiplane transoesophage...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether there is significant atrial or atrial appendage enlargement or functional remodelling as a result of one to two months of sustained atrial fibrillation, a duration similar to that experienced by patients undergoing warfarin anticoagulation before elective cardioversion. METHODS To test the hypothesis that left atrial and left atrial appendage enlargement develop...

INTRODUCTION Atrial fibrillation was previously reported in patients with esophageal cancer as a complication of total esophagectomy or photodynamic therapy. Here, we propose that atrial fibrillation may also be caused by external compression of the left atrium by esophageal cancer. CASE PRESENTATION We present a 58-year-old man who developed atrial fibrillation with rapid ventricular rate in...

Echocardiographic Findings That May Help Identify Occult Intermittent Atrial Fibrillation in Hypertensive Patients at Risk for a Second (or First) Ischemic Stroke To the Editor: In their review, Liao et al1 found that Holter or event monitoring of patients after ischemic stroke identified 5% to 7% with intermittent atrial fibrillation not present on the admission ECG. They suggest that such mon...

the most common type of arrhythmia following coronary artery bypass graft (cabg) is atrial fibrillation (af) with an incidence rate of 20-30%. pericardial effusion is one of the etiologic factors of atrial fibrillation occurring after cabg. posterior pericardiotomy (pp) causes the drainage of blood and fluids from the pericardial space into the pleural space leading to a decreased pericardial e...

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES Ectopic activity originating inside the pulmonary veins has been associated with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation in some patients. However, the roles played by the pulmonary veins and the posterior wall of the left atrium in maintaining atrial fibrillation are not well understood. METHODS Our aim was to determine whether there is a correlation between the refractory...

Left ventricular hypertrophy has been suggested to mediate the relation between hypertension and left atrial enlargement, with associated risks of atrial fibrillation and stroke. However, less is known about correlates of left atrial size in hypertensive patients with left ventricular hypertrophy. We assessed left atrial size by echocardiography in 941 hypertensive patients, age 55 to 80 (mean,...

BACKGROUND Although structural heart disease is often present in patients with nonrheumatic atrial fibrillation, the echocardiographic precursors of atrial fibrillation have not been reported previously. In this elderly, population-based cohort, our objective was to examine prospectively the echocardiographic predictors of nonrheumatic atrial fibrillation. METHODS AND RESULTS Subjects in the ...