A patient with type A Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome and prolonged interatrial conduction intervals developed atrial flutter during the course of an electrophysiological study. The atrial flutter blocked along the left-to-right conduction pathways in a Wenckebach pattern. The dissimilar atrial rhythms of right atrial tachycardia and left atrial flutter evolved as the interatrial block increased...

BACKGROUND Endocardial mapping of sustained arrhythmias has traditionally been performed with a roving diagnostic catheter. Although this approach is adequate for many tachyarrhythmias, it has limitations. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a novel noncontact mapping system for assessing atrial tachyarrhythmias. METHODS AND RESULTS The mapping system consists of a 9F multielectrode-arr...

The human heart can be frequently affected by an organ-limited amyloidosis called isolated atrial amyloidosis (IAA). IAA is a frequent histopathological finding in patients with long-standing atrial fibrillation (AF). The aim of this paper was to investigate the ultrastructure of cardiomyocytes and telocytes in patients with AF and IAA. Human atrial biopsies were obtained from 37 patients under...

A 57 year-old male patient was admitted to our echocardiography laboratory to rule out thrombus in left atrium before electrical cardioversion of atrial fibrillation. Transoesophageal echocardiography (TEE) demonstrated in the bicaval view, the right atrial appendage measured 10 x 5 cm, area: 42 cm(2), volume: 229 mL (Figure, left). A quick injection of 15 cc of echo-contrast fluid (shaken sali...

We report the case of a 65year old female patient who was urgently admitted to our institution with hemothorax after pacemaker implantation. The bichamber pacemaker had been implanted one week before admission and the active fixation lead caused perforation of the right atrial wall and penetration of the right lung. Transthoracic echocardiography demonstrated a minimal cardiac effusion but ches...

BACKGROUND Left and right atrial function show a different pattern in advanced age in order to maintain adequate ventricular filling. It has been shown that left atrial (LA) function has a prognostic value in a number of heart conditions. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) provides high quality images of the left and right atria using high temporal resolution steady state free precession (...

OBJECTIVE To compare the acute effects of right atrial appendage, atrial septal, coronary sinus os, and dual site pacing on the duration of atrial activation. METHODS 20 patients with a variety of cardiac conditions underwent an intracardiac electrophysiological study. Electrograms were recorded from the right atrial appendage and at multiple sites within the coronary sinus. The duration of a...