INTRODUCTION The purpose of our study was to evaluate the effect of repeated cardioversion with an implantable atrial defibrillator on the clinical outcome of patients with atrial fibrillation. METHODS AND RESULTS The effects of the implantable atrial defibrillator on the total duration of atrial fibrillation, number of atrial fibrillation recurrences, and left atrial size were evaluated pros...

patients with valvular heart disease and suffering atrial fibrillation of more than 12 months duration have a low probability of remaining in sinus rhythm after valve surgery alone. we performed intra-operative radiofrequency ablation or cryoablation as an alternative to surgical maze ііі procedure to create linear lesion lines for conversion of this arrhythmia to sinus rhythm. a total of 30 pa...

The aim of the present study was to determine whether left atrial size--a likely indicator of atrial stretching--correlates with the plasma concentration of atrial natriuretic peptide and whether this relation is different in patients in sinus rhythm and in those with atrial fibrillation. Arterial plasma concentrations of immunoreactive atrial natriuretic peptide (ir-ANP), adrenaline, noradrena...

a 51-year-old man was admitted to the emergency department with palpitation and atypical chest pain. he had a history of percutaneous mitral valve commissurotomy 20 years previously. he did not use any drugs. physical examination was unremarkable except for a loud s1 on auscultation. the surface electrocardiogram (ecg) showed atrial fibrillation rhythmwith rapid ventricular response and right b...

Whereas the left atrial appendage plays a rather minor role under physiological circumstances, it gains an importance in patients with atrial fibrillation. Compelling evidence has revealed that the left atrial appendage is implicated as the source of thrombus in the vast majority of strokes in atrial fibrillation. Oral anticoagulation remains the standard of care for stroke prevention in atrial...

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES Mitral valve disease often is accompanied by chronic atrial fibrillation, especially when the left atrium is enlarged. Mitral valve surgery alone cannot resolve the arrhythmia in most cases. Several surgical techniques have been proposed. We have used surgical left atrial reduction and pulmonary vein isolation to eliminate chronic atrial fibrillation associated with ...

Atrial fibrillation is the most common arrhythmia following valvular heart surgery. Radiofrequence catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation in patients with prothetic mechanical mitral valve is feasible and relatively safe in experienced center. Implementation of real-time three dimensional transoesophageal echocardiography in atrial fibrillation can demonstrate on-line left atrial and left atr...

The dominant driving sources of atrial fibrillation are often found in the left atrium, but the expression of left atrial activation on the body surface is poorly understood. Using body surface potential mapping and simultaneous invasive measurements of left atrial activation our aim was to describe the expression of the left atrial dominant fibrillation frequency across the body surface. 20 pa...

I review the present understanding of thromboembolic complications and their prevention in patients with nonrheumatic atrial fibrillation. Chronic atrial fibrillation carries an annual 3-6% risk of thromboembolic complications, which is 5-7 times greater than that of controls with sinus rhythm. Paroxysmal atrial fibrillation is associated with a lower risk of thromboembolic complications than c...

OBJECTIVE The study aimed to evaluate the frequency of left atrial dilatation in cases of first-ever acute ischemic stroke with or without atrial fibrillation in a cohort of patients hospitalized for ischemic stroke. METHODS Files of 120 patients admitted to our hospital with the diagnosis of acute ischemic stroke were investigated. All patients had at least one brain imaging. Etiology of str...