Influence of atrial ultrastructural remodeling on its early mechanical transport following surgery for atrial fibrillation and mitral insufficiency

Tomislav Kopjar ,Maja Čikeš ,Lucija Svetina ,Željko Čolak ,Tea Fabijanic ,Mate Petričević ,Hrvoje Gašparović ,Ljubica Hlupic ,Davor Miličić ,Vedran Velagić ,Bojan Biočina

doi:10.1186/1749-8090-8-s1-o63

Tomislav Kopjar , Maja Čikeš + Show 9 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/1749-8090-8-s1-o63

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Abstract

Methods We enrolled 32 patients operated for severe mitral regurgitation. Half of the patients had no history of AF constituting the SR group. The remaining half had concomitant RFA for longstanding persistent AF, the RFA group. Intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography was used for tissue Doppler indices (TDI) data acquisition at the left atrial (LA) lateral wall. During post-procedural data acquisition all patients were in SR. LA biopsies were obtained during surgery and quantified for fibrosis after Mallory’s trichrome staining.

Highlights

Establishment of sinus rhythm (SR) following radiofrequency ablation (RFA) for longstanding persistent atrial fibrillation (AF) is not necessarily an equivalent to physiological atrial mechanical activity
Intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography was used for tissue Doppler indices (TDI) data acquisition at the left atrial (LA) lateral wall
Atrial mechanical contraction was noted in both groups following surgery, TDI values of late diastolic strain rate (SRI A’) and tissue velocity (TVI A’) were superior in the SR group (-1.49 ± 1.04 vs. -2.82 ± 1.97, p = 0.022; 1.22 ± 1.08 vs. 3.86 ± 2.30, p = 0.003)