Left Atrial Fractional Shortening: A Simple and Practical "Strain" for Everyone

Overview

Journal J Cardiovasc Echogr

Date 2019 Aug 9

PMID 31392119

Citations 3

Authors

Giulia Elena Mandoli

Matteo Cameli

Edoardo Lisi

Simona Minardi

Valentina Capone

Maria Concetta Pastore

Sergio Mondillo

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: The function of the left atrium (LA) is reduced in many cardiac diseases even with normal size. The assessment of its compliance could represent an added value in an echocardiographic report in case the gold standard technique (speckle-tracking echocardiography [STE]) is not available. We sought to test a simple and quick method as surrogate of STE: the dynamic measurement of the LA anteroposterior diameter (APD) that we called LA fractional shortening (LAFS).

Materials And Methods: A total of 153 consecutive patients underwent a transthoracic echocardiography in our echo laboratory between January and June 2017. The only inclusion criteria were the presence of an acoustic window and the informed consent. We chose to not apply exclusion criteria to assess LAFS feasibility. The LAFS was calculated as (maxAPD-minAPD)/(maxAPD) × 100 in parasternal long-axis view. We evaluated the correlation of its value with the peak atrial longitudinal strain (PALS) and the LA emptying fraction (EF).

Results: Mean execution time was 32.1 ± 5 s for LAFS, 2.3 ± 0.7 min for LAEF, and 2 ± 1 min for PALS. LAFS, with a feasibility of about 97%, was moderately correlated with PALS and LAEF (R between 0.20 and 0.30, < 0.05). LAFS fractional shortening also emerged as surrogate for PALS via the relationship PALS = 21.07 + 0.364x (LAFS).

Conclusions: LAFS demonstrated a correlation with PALS, a short execution time, a high feasibility, and the possibility to be used as a surrogate of PALS, applying a specific formula.

Citing Articles

Incidence, Risk Factors, and Outcomes of Left Atrial Enlargement in Patients Requiring Right Ventricular Pacing: A Retrospective Study of 461 Cases from 2012 to 2020.

Lee W, Chang W, Fang H, Chen H, Chen M, Liu P Med Sci Monit. 2024; 30:e944114.

PMID: 38776271 PMC: 11129602. DOI: 10.12659/MSM.944114.

Predictive Value of Left Atrial and Ventricular Strain for the Detection of Atrial Fibrillation in Patients With Cryptogenic Stroke.

Bufano G, Radico F, DAngelo C, Pierfelice F, De Angelis M, Faustino M Front Cardiovasc Med. 2022; 9:869076.

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Can echocardiography improve the prediction of thromboembolic risk in atrial fibrillation? Evidences and perspectives.

Tufano A, Galderisi M Intern Emerg Med. 2020; 15(6):935-943.

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