Association of peak atrial longitudinal strain with atrial fibrillation recurrence in patients with chronic lung diseases following radiofrequency ablation

• Published in: Internal medicine journal 2018-07, Vol.48 (7), p.851-859
• Main Authors: Bai, Ying, Zhao, Ying, Li, Jie, Zhang, Ying, Bai, Rong, Du, Xin, Dong, Jian‐Zeng, He, Yi‐Hua, Ma, Chang‐Sheng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: atrial fibrillation; Cardiac arrhythmia; chronic lung disease; Echocardiography; Fibrillation; Health risk assessment; Lung diseases; peak right atrial longitudinal strain; Radiofrequency ablation
• ISSN: 1444-0903; 1445-5994
• DOI: 10.1111/imj.13768

Background Strain was shown associated with atrial fibrillation (AF) recurrence after radiofrequency ablation (RFA), but data on AF patients complicated with chronic lung diseases (CLD) were rare. Aim This study was designed to evaluate the relationship of baseline atrial function with AF recurrence in these patients using speckle‐tracking echocardiography. Methods Average strain values (median: 2 days before RFA) were calculated for 87 AF patients (Mean age: 61.91 years, male: 71.26%) with CLD undergoing RFA from 2013 to 2014. Of these patients, 25 (28.74%) experienced AF recurrence during a mean follow up of 10.3 months. Results Peak right atrial longitudinal strain (R‐PALS) was associated with peak left atrial longitudinal strain (L‐PALS, Standardised β = 0.45, P < 0.001) in multivariate linear regression. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed R‐PALS was associated with AF recurrence (hazard ratio, 0.86; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.78–0.96, P = 0.005) in CLD. Patients with R‐PALS ≥14.69% had higher AF free rate compared with R‐PALS