Our understanding of the left atrium is growing, although there are many aspects that are still poorly understood. The left atrium size as an imaging biomarker has been consistently shown to be a powerful predictor of outcomes and of different cardiovascular disorders, such as, but not limited to, atrial fibrillation, congestive heart failure, mitral regurgitation and stroke. Left atrial functi...

Segmentation of the left atrium is vital for pre-operative assessment of its anatomy in radio-frequency catheter ablation (RFCA) surgery. RFCA is commonly used for treating atrial fibrillation. In this paper we present an semi-automatic approach for segmenting the left atrium and the pulmonary veins from MR angiography (MRA) data sets. We also present an automatic approach for further subdividi...

delayed evaluation and management of penetrating cardiac injuries especially mortar fragments were performed in 30 war victims in the shahid rajai heart hospital, tehran. all were men with a mean age of 20.7 years. pleuritic chest pain was the most common symptom (53.3%), while physical examination was negative in the majority of cases (66.8%). 50 percent of the cases had pericardial effusion o...

Method From December 1998 to December 2013 we performed symmetric volume-reduction plasty of the left atrium (LA) in 104 patients with mitral valve disease using a technique we developed: we began the superior suture on the top of LA, above the line between the superior pulmonary veins; the right and left sutures were begun more laterally than the ostium of the inferior pulmonary veins, while o...

A 4-month-old infant with cyanosis but without other abnormal cardiac findings is presented in whom the diagnosis of anomalous systemic venous connection to the left atrium was made by contrast echocardiography. The diagnosis was later confirmed by cardiac catheterisation and selective cineangiography. When saline was injected into a vein on the dorsum of each hand while echocardiographically r...

In the course of the evaluation of five patients with left atrial myxoma, it was noted that the movement of the myxoma was related to specific changes in left atrial hemodynamics. Prolapsing tumors, Type I, move from the left ventricle to the left atrium in early systole and from the left atrium to the left ventricle in early diastole, thereby causing prominent c and v waves accompanied by a ra...

Calcification of the left atrium can be observed in patients with a long-lasting rheumatic heart disease. However, massive calcification of the atrial wall, so called porcelain or coconut atrium is very rare and has been generally reported only as incidental radiographic findings. We report a case of massive and firm calcifications at the left atrium in patient who underwent mitral valve replac...

In 20 anesthetized dogs, close bipolar electrograms consisting of two deflections were recorded along the ligament of Marshall in the posterior left atrium. At the inferior portion of the ligament the deflections were separated by an interval of 10-15 msec and at the level of the left superior pulmonary vein by an interval of 60 msec or more. Histological and electrophysiological studies indica...

Valve Prolapse To the Editor: I thoroughly enjoyed Hurst’s dissertation on the etiology of a giant left atrium1 and concurred that a giant left atrium seldom results from severe mitral regurgitation due to a nonrheumatic cause such as mitral valve prolapse. Although I would never dare to challenge Dr Hurst on anything he said or wrote, because I consider him not only as the master clinician of ...

Foreign bodies in the left atrium are rare events with potential major complications. We describe the percutaneous retrieval of a coil from the left atrium that migrated there during an embolization procedure for a pulmonary arteriovenous malformation.