The number of patients with atrial fibrillation and congestive heart failure has steadily increased in the United States. The presence of atrial fibrillation increases morbidity and mortality for patients with left ventricular dysfunction. The emergence of cardiac resynchronization therapy to improve symptoms and survival from congestive heart failure may provide benefits for those with atrial ...

AIMS To test the ability of four circulating biomarkers of fibrosis, and of low left atrial voltage, to predict recurrence of atrial fibrillation after catheter ablation. BACKGROUND Circulating biomarkers potentially may be used to improve patient selection for atrial fibrillation ablation. Low voltage areas in the left atrium predict arrhythmia recurrence when mapped in sinus rhythm. This st...

SUMMARY In a series of 135 patients with mitral valvular stenosis, three groups were identified: those in sinus rhythm, those with intermittent atrial fibrillation, and those with longstanding, established atrial fibrillation. Examination of the relationships between atrial fibrillation, hemodynamic findings and radiologic data in mitral stenosis was undertaken. Analysis of clinical and hemodyn...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to evaluate the serum soluble semaphorin 4D (sSema4D) in patients with atrial fibrillation and to investigate the relationship of serum sSema4D with left atrial diameter (LAD). MATERIAL AND METHODS We studied a total of 113 patients who were subdivided into paroxysmal and non-paroxysmal (included persistent and permanent) atrial fibrillation groups, respec...

BACKGROUND The occurrence of atrial fibrillation after ablation of type I atrial flutter remains an important clinical problem. To gain further insight into the pathogenesis and significance of postablation atrial fibrillation, we examined the time to onset, determinants, and clinical course of atrial fibrillation after ablation of type I flutter in a large patient cohort. METHODS AND RESULTS...

Atrial fibrillation is the most comon arrhythmia in worldwide. Stroke risk in AF is 5-fold higher than sinus rhythm. The left atrial appendage is the most important source of atrial emboli. The standard surgical “cut-and-sew” Cox-maze III procedure is the golden choice for surgical treatment of any type of atrial fibrillation, with success rate higher than 90%. A full bi-atrial lesion pattern m...

OBJECTIVE To determine the effect of changes in autonomic tone induced by phenylephrine infusion on atrial refractoriness and conduction. DESIGN Left and right atrial electrophysiological properties were measured before and after a constant phenylephrine infusion designed to increase sinus cycle length by 25%. SUBJECTS 20 patients, aged 53 (SD 6) years, undergoing electrophysiological study...