Atrial fibrillation increases the risk of thrombus formation. It is commonly responsible for cerebral stroke whereas less frequently for pulmonary embolism. The aim of the study was to describe the morphology of the left atrial appendage in the human heart with respect to sex, age and weight. Macroscopic examination was carried out on 100 left appendages taken from the hearts of the patients ag...

AIMS Left atrial appendage device occlusion is an increasingly accepted therapy for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation. The feasibility and safety of left atrial catheter ablation procedures in the presence of a left atrial appendage device implant is unclear. We report on 10 cases of successful left atrial catheter ablation therapy for atrial fibrillation in patients with an implanted Wa...

BACKGROUND Intracranial hemorrhage is the most serious complication of anticoagulant therapy and is itself an absolute contraindication to further treatment. CASE REPORT We present the case of a 78-year-old patient with permanent atrial fibrillation and previous intracranial hemorrhage during oral anticoagulation therapy, who was a candidate for percutaneous closure of the left atrial appenda...

INTRODUCTION Patients referred for percutaneous transcatheter mitral valve repair using the MitraClip® system frequently have atrial fibrillation, which imposes additional challenges due to the need for oral anticoagulation. Left atrial appendage occlusion is currently regarded as a non-inferior alternative to anticoagulation in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation and both high throm...

IN an exploration of the left atrium via an atrial septal defect during a recent cardiac catheterization in this laboratory, the catheter tip entered the left atrial appendage. An exaggerated "a" wave observed in the pressure contour from the left atrial appendage was striking and exceeded in amplitude the "a" wave from the left atrium proper. Following a similar observation shortly thereafter ...

This article reviews the published evidence on stroke prevention with percutaneous closure of the left atrial appendage and provides comparative insight into the various left atrial appendage closure devices currently in development.

Background: Mechanical occlusion of the Left atrial appendage (LAA) using a purpose-built device has emerged as an effective prophylactic treatment in patients with atrial fibrillation at risk of stroke and a contraindication for anticoagulation. A crucial step in procedural planning is the choice of the device size. This is currently based on the manual analysis of the “Device Landing Zone” fr...

A 41-year-old man had chronic, recurrent, drug-resistant paroxysmal right atrial tachycardia. Electrophysiologic studies revealed features suggesting atrial reentrance, including induction and termination of tachycardia with rapid atrial pacing and atrial extrastimuli. Endocardial catheter mapping localized the origin of tachycardia to the right atrial appendage. Intraoperative epicardial mappi...

Left atrial appendage ostial stenosis with or without previous surgicalor catheter-based intervention has been previously described [1-5]. The clinical implications of this anomaly are uncertain because it’s a very rare condition given the small number of cases reported. Herein, we report a case of left atrial appendage ostial stenosis with typical atrial flutter (AFL) and asymmetric septal hyp...

OBJECTIVES We investigated immunoreactive von Willebrand factor (vWF), a platelet adhesion molecule, in the endocardial endothelium and its relationship to thrombogenesis in the human atrial appendage. BACKGROUND Intra-atrial thrombogenesis is generally thought to be induced by blood stasis in the atrial appendage involved with atrial fibrillation (AF). Little attention has been paid to alter...