Clinical Study On Strain/Strain Rate Imaging For Functional Quantification Of The Left Artium

Background: The left atrium serves as a distensible reservoir for blood stored during left ventricular systole, a conduit for pulmonary venous flow during early left ventricular diastole, and as a booster pump augmenting left ventricular filling during late diastole. Through the three functions left atrium modulates left ventricular filling and cardiovascular performance. Atrial fibrillation is the most common sustained cardiac arrhythmia and is a major risk factor for stroke and mortality. It is thought that atrial fibrillation is both a reflection of active physiologic stressors on the body and a marker of future cardiac disease progression. The emergences of new pharmacological treatment and technologies aimed at restoring and maintaining sinus rhythm, such as left atrial linear ablation techniques, have increased the interest in the left atrial role in atrial fibrillation. Persistent atrial fibrillation, paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, hypertension and left ventricular diastolic dysfunction are closely associated with left atrial enlargement, especially atrial fibrillation. It is supposed that atrial fibrillation is a disease of left atrium. Studies on the left atrium in hypertensive patients have made it clear that how the function and morphology of left atrium changes, yet in hypertensive patients with arrhythmias how the function of left atrium changes remains unknown. Focusing on the changes of left atrium, including...