background: about half of all patients who undergo mitral valve surgery suffer from atrial fibrillation (af). cox described the surgical cut-and-sew maze procedure, which is an effective surgical method but has some complications. this study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of a substitution method of radiofrequency ablation (rfa) for patients undergoing mitral valve surgery with af. metho...

introduction left atrial thrombi are present in one third of patients with severe rheumatic mitral stenosis and atrial fibrillation. a left atrial mass can be diagnosed as a thrombus by transthoracic echocardiography in the presence of the predisposing factors for a thrombus such as mitral stenosis and atrial fibrillation. the sensitivity of transthoracic echocardiography for detecting left atr...

atrial fibrillation (af) is the most common arrhythmia after cardiothoracic surgery. af following coronary artery bypass graft (cabg) is associated with an increase in morbidity, mortality, hemodynamic instability, thromboembolic events, severity of heart failure and icu and hospital stay. corticosteroids have a variety of beneficial effects on recovery after elective surgery. this study was de...

patients with valvular heart disease suffer from atrial fibrillation for more than 12 months after valve surgery and have a low probability of remaining in sinus rhythm. we performed an intra-operative procedure similar to surgical maze ііі procedure for conversion of this arrhythmia to sinus rhythm. we did this study to evaluate the efficacy of this procedure to restore the sinus rhythm in pat...

Background: P wave dispersion (PWD) is defined as the difference between the maximum P wave duration (Pmax) and the minimum P wave duration (Pmin) in 12-leads of the surface electrocardiography. The aim of this study was to evaluate the values of PWD during atrial fibrillation (AF) after acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Methods: We prospectively evaluated atrial rhythms of 350 patients (251 m...

background: p wave dispersion (pwd) is defined as the difference between the maximum p wave duration (p max ) and the minimum p wave duration (p min ) in 12-leads of the surface electrocardiography. the aim of this study was to evaluate the values of pwd during atrial fibrillation (af) after acute myocardial infarction (ami).   methods: we prospectively evaluated atrial rhythms of 350 patients ...

Right atrial dilation due to left heart disease is a common complication among adults. The present review aimed to describe a case of massively dilated right atrium in a female patient presenting with valvular heart disease and no atrial fibrillation. The results of chest X-ray revealed a large opacity filling the lower right hemithorax, falsely interpreted as a mediastinal mass. During the tra...

In 1987, Dr. James L. Cox performed the first maze procedure for surgical ablation of atrial fibrillation.1 Previous efforts at surgical correction were not uniformly successful, and some procedures corrected cardiac rhythm but did not restore synchronized atrial contraction. Cox’s maze procedure, performed with a precise pattern of incisions and suturing of the right and left atria, proved hig...

BACKGROUND Left atrial appendage obliteration was historically ineffective for the prevention of postoperative stroke in patients with rheumatic atrial fibrillation who underwent operative mitral valvotomy. It is, however, a routine part of modern "curative" operations for nonrheumatic atrial fibrillation, such as the maze and corridor procedures. METHODS To assess the potential of left atria...