Stiff Left Atrial Syndrome; Prospects and Possibilities. Retrospective Analysis and Review of the Literature

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Ali Chaudhry ◽  
Allen Johnson ◽  
James Thomas Heywood

Objectives: Stiff left atrial syndrome is an intriguing clinical phenomena characterized by reduced left atrial compliance, pulmonary venous hypertension and exacerbations of volume overload. We conducted a retrospective review of patients diagnosed with stiff left atrial syndrome at our center. Methods: All patients admitted to our hospital with volume overload and pulmonary venous hypertension who were diagnosed with stiff left atrial syndrome based on evidence by echocardiogram and right heart catheterization between July 2011 and July 2013 were included in this retrospective review. Results: Twentythree patients (mean age 73 ± 11 years, 39% male and 61% female) were diagnosed with stiff left atrial syndrome at our center. Thirty-five percent had persistent while 39% had permanent atrial fibrillation. Mean duration of atrial fibrillation was 7.6 ± 2.1 years. Forty-three percent of patients had long standing hypertension. There was no mitral regurgitation in 39% of patients while 48% had mild mitral regurgitation. On right heart catheterization, mean right atrial pressure was 12.6±4.8 mm of Hg, mean pulmonary arterial pressure was 33±7.2 mm of Hg, mean pulmonary capillary wedge pressure was 24.8± 4.2mm of Hg while peak V waves were seen at mean of 37.8± 5.3 mm of Hg. Mean left atrial volume index was 49.8±17.1 mL/m 2. After the initial diagnosis with a two year follow- up, there were no readmissions in 65% of patients who were on appropriate diuretic therapy and had regular clinical visits. Frequent readmissions were seen in 35% of patients inspite of appropriate diuretic therapy. All-cause mortality rate was 4.3% at two year follow up. Conclusion: In patients with stiff left atrial syndrome, the presence of left atrial dilation, long standing atrial fibrillation and hypertension are the key factors associated with pathogenesis and clinical course. Close follow up and monitoring of volume status is essential to prevent hospital readmissions and improve long term prognosis.

Circulation ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 130 (suppl_2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vojtech Melenovsky ◽  
Rosita Zakeri ◽  
Margaret M Redfield ◽  
Barry A Borlaug

Introduction: Left atrial structure and function (LA) is affected by the presence of heart failure (HF), but the specific impact of HF subtype is poorly characterized. Hypothesis: HF-induced LA remodeling differs between patients with preserved (pEF) or reduced ejection fraction (rEF). Methods: 198 consecutive HF patients referred to Mayo Clinic (51% HFpEF, NYHA 3.1±0.7, 66±13 years, 39% females) and 40 HF-free controls of similar age and gender underwent right heart catheterization (LA pressures), echocardiography (LA volumes) and follow-up. Results: Compared with controls, HF patients had larger atria and more impaired LA reservoir and contractile function (total and active LAEF, all p<0.001). At identical mean LA pressure (20 vs 20 mmHg, p=0.9), HFrEF patients had larger LA volumes (LAVI 50 vs 41 ml/m 2 p<0.001), but HFpEF patients had higher LA peak (V-wave) and lower LA minimal pressures, with higher LA stiffness (0.79 vs 0.48 mmHg.ml -1 , p<0.001, Fig-A) and LA pressure pulsatility (19 vs 13 mmHg, p<0.001). Despite smaller LA size, better LA function (total LAEF 39 vs 35 %, p=0.04, active LAEF 30 vs 22 %, p<0.001) and less mitral regurgitation (grade 1.8 vs 2.5, p<0.001), HFpEF patients had more atrial fibrillation (42 vs 26%, p=0.02). After a median follow-up 350 days, 31 HFpEF and 28 HFrEF patients died. LA function was associated with mortality in HFpEF, but not in HFrEF (Fig-B). Conclusions: HFrEF is characterized by greater eccentric LA remodeling, but HFpEF is associated with increased LA stiffening and greater LA pressure pulsatility which may contribute to greater burden of atrial fibrillation. The observation that LA function is more closely linked to outcome in HFpEF supports the goal to maintain or improve LA function in HFpEF.


ESC CardioMed ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 2507-2511 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Calderaro ◽  
Luis Felipe Prada ◽  
Rogério Souza

The diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension (PH) relies on the haemodynamic criterion of mean pulmonary arterial pressure greater than or equal to 25 mmHg, assessed by right heart catheterization. The scope of this chapter is to discuss the key elements of clinical assessment of PH patients and the decision process to indicate right heart catheterization. Investigation must get through all the possible causes of PH according to their probability and frequency in the population. Echocardiography is the most important non-invasive test as an indicator for further diagnostic evaluation. Patients who are eligible for right heart catheterization should always be referred to PH centres, where technical skills and standardized procedures will enable maximal reliability of haemodynamic measurement. In the reference centre, a multidisciplinary team will discuss clinical and haemodynamic data, to propose the best therapeutic and follow-up schedule.


2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (Supplement_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
F H Khan ◽  
O S Andersen ◽  
E Gude ◽  
H Skulstad ◽  
O A Smiseth ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The current algorithm in the 2016 recommendations for echocardiographic estimation of left ventricular filling pressure (LVFP) as normal or elevated, combines traditional indices of mitral inflow velocities, tissue Doppler, left atrial volume and tricuspid regurgitation velocity (Figure A). Some of the patients remain unclassified by this algorithm. Left atrial (LA) strain is a novel index that correlates well with LVFP and may improve estimation of LVFP in these patients. Purpose We tested if LA strain can improve estimation of LVFP for the patients that are unclassified by the 2016 algorithm. Methods We analyzed data from 100 patients who were referred to right heart catheterization due to unexplained dyspnea or suspected heart failure. Echocardiography was performed simultaneously with or within 24 hours of right heart catheterization. Pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (PCWP) was used as an estimate for LVFP and defined as elevated if above 12 mmHg. Elevated LVFP was first estimated using the 2016 algorithm. In patients who were unclassified by the algorithm due to conflicting indices or unattainable indices, LA strain was subsequently used to detect elevated LVFP using a cut-off found from ROC analysis of the whole cohort. Results Six patients were unclassified by the 2016 algorithm. The ROC analysis of all 100 patients showed that at an LA strain cut-off of above or below 16.2%, LVFP was correctly classified as normal or elevated, respectively, with a sensitivity of 83% and specificity of 88%. All 6 unclassified patients by the 2016 algorithm were correctly classified using the LA strain cut-off, effectively increasing the accuracy of the algorithm by 6 percentage points. Conclusions LA strain may have a role in non-invasive estimation of LVFP, particularly in patients who remain unclassified when using the conventional echocardiographic indices. Acknowledgement/Funding South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority


Diagnostics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1738
Author(s):  
Valentin Coirier ◽  
Céline Chabanne ◽  
Stéphane Jouneau ◽  
Nicolas Belhomme ◽  
Alice Ballerie ◽  
...  

Background: to compare three existing screening algorithms of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) in systemic sclerosis (SSc) with the results of a multidisciplinary team (MDT) meeting from a tertiary center. Methods: we conducted a monocentric longitudinal study from 2015 to 2018. All patients with SSc according to LeRoy’s classification were eligible. Patients were excluded in the case of missing data required by any of the three screening algorithms. The algorithms were applied for each patient at inclusion. Right heart catheterization (RHC) was performed based on the MDT decision. MDT members were all blinded from the results of the three algorithms regarding RHC recommendations. The RHC recommendations of each algorithm were compared with the MDT decision, and the impact on diagnosis and management was evaluated. Results: 117 SSc patients were consecutively included in the study, and 99 had follow-up data over the three-year duration of the study (10 deaths). Among the 117 patients, the MDT suggested RHC for 16 patients (14%), DETECT algorithm for 28 (24%), ASIG for 48 (41%) and ESC/ERS 2015 for 20 (17%). Among the 16 patients who had RHC, SSc-PAH was diagnosed in seven. Among patients with an initial recommendation of RHC based on at least one algorithm but not according to the MDT meeting, no SSc-PAH was diagnosed during the three-year follow-up. Results were unchanged when the new 2018 definition of PAH was applied instead of the previous definition. Conclusion: a MDT approach appears interesting for the screening of SSc-PAH, with a significant reduction of RHC performed in comparison with dedicated algorithms. The specific relevance of a MDT for the management and follow-up of patients with RHC recommended by existing algorithms but with no PAH warrants further studies.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashwin Venkateshvaran ◽  
Natavan Seidova ◽  
Hande Oktay Tureli ◽  
Barbro Kjellström ◽  
Lars H Lund ◽  
...  

Abstract BACKGROUND. Accurate assessment of pulmonary artery (PA) pressures is integral to diagnosis, follow-up and therapy selection in pulmonary hypertension (PH). Despite wide utilization, the accuracy of echocardiography to estimate PA pressures has been debated. We aimed to evaluate echocardiographic accuracy to estimate right heart catheterization (RHC) based PA pressures in a large, dual-centre hemodynamic database. METHODS. Consecutive PH referrals that underwent comprehensive echocardiography within 3 hours of clinically indicated right heart catheterization were enrolled. Subjects with absent or severe, free-flowing tricuspid regurgitation (TR) were excluded. Accuracy was defined as mean bias between echocardiographic and invasive measurements on Bland-Altman analysis for the cohort and estimate difference within ±10mmHg of invasive measurements for individual diagnosis. RESULTS. In 419 subjects, echocardiographic PA systolic and mean pressures demonstrated minimal bias with invasive measurements (+2.4 and +1.9mmHg respectively) but displayed wide limits of agreement (-20 to +25 and -14 to +18mmHg respectively) and frequently misclassified subjects. Recommendation-based right atrial pressure (RAP) demonstrated poor precision and was falsely elevated in 32% of individual cases. Applying a fixed, median RAP to echocardiographic estimates resulted in relatively lower bias between modalities when assessing PA systolic (+1.4mmHg; 95% limits of agreement +25 to –22mmHg) and PA mean pressures (+1.4mmHg; 95% limits of agreement +19 to -16mmHg).CONCLUSIONS. Echocardiography accurately represents invasive PA pressures for population studies but may be misleading for individual diagnosis owing to modest precision and frequent misclassification. Recommendation-based estimates of RAPmean may not necessarily contribute to greater accuracy of PA pressure estimates.


2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (Supplement_2) ◽  
Author(s):  
W Szczurek ◽  
M Gasior ◽  
M Skrzypek ◽  
K Antonczyk ◽  
A Bielka ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Oxidative stress is a cause of cardiac diseases and contribute to apoptosis, cardiac remodeling, cardiac growth and repair. The end-stage heart failure (HF) is associated with ischemia-reperfusion, increased neurohumoral activity, cytokine stimulation and presence of inflammatory cells. Above factors are stimuli which generate free radicals and can induce oxidative stress in the heart and cause damage to essential myocardial structures and function. However, the role of oxidative stress in end-stage HF has not been fully understood. Purpose This study aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of the oxidative stress markers in ambulatory patients with end-stage HF awaiting heart transplantation (HT) during a 1.5 year follow-up period. Method The study was a prospective analysis of 85 optimally treated adult patients with end-stage HF, who were added to the HT waiting list at the Cardiology Department between 2015 and 2016. At the time of enrollment to the study routine laboratory tests, cardiopulmonary exercise test, echocardiography, spirometry and right heart catheterization were performed in all patients. During right heart catheterization, 10 ml of coronary sinus blood was additionally collected to determine total oxidant status (TOS) and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) levels. TOS and TAC were measured by Erel's method. The endpoint was all-cause mortality during a 1.5 years follow-up. The Medical University of Silesia's local Institutional Review Board approved the study protocol, and all patients provided informed consent. Results Median age of the patients was 53.0 (43.0–56.0) years and 90.6% of them were male. During the observation period, the mortality rate was 40%. The area under the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves indicated an acceptable discriminatory power of TAC (AUC: 0.780 [CI: 0.677–0.883]; sensitivity 56%, and specificity 90%); and excellent power of TOS (AUC: 0.9530 [CI: 0.9279–0.9781]; sensitivity 88%, and specificity 94%) for 1.5 years mortality. Patients with a low TAC level (≤1.10) had a significantly worse 1.5-year survival compared to the group with a high TAC level (&gt;1.10) (1.5 year survival: 20.8% versus 75.4%; (long rank p&lt;0.001). Similarly, patients with a high TOS level (≥3.11) had a significantly worse survival compared to the group with a low TOS level (&lt;3.11) (1.5- year survival: 9.1% versus 92.3%; p&lt;0.001). Conclusion TAC with acceptable prognostic power and TOS with excellent prognostic power allows assessment of the prognosis in end-stage HF during a 1.5 year follow-up period. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding source: Public Institution(s). Main funding source(s): Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland


Rheumatology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nobuya Abe ◽  
Masaru Kato ◽  
Michihito Kono ◽  
Yuichiro Fujieda ◽  
Hiroshi Ohira ◽  
...  

Abstract Objectives Pulmonary hypertension (PH) in patients with CTD is a heterogeneous condition affected by left heart disease, chronic lung disease and thromboembolism as well as pulmonary vascular disease. Recent studies using cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) have shown that right ventricular dysfunction is predictive for mortality in patients with PH, but limited to pulmonary arterial hypertension. This study aimed to analyse prognostic factors in PH-CTD. Methods This retrospective analysis comprised 84 CTD patients, including SSc, who underwent both CMR and right heart catheterization from 2008 to 2018. Demographics, laboratory findings, and haemodynamic and morphological parameters were extracted. The prognostic value of each parameter was evaluated by multivariate analysis using covariables derived from propensity score to control confounding factors. Results Of 84 patients, 65 had right heart catheterization-confirmed PH (54 pulmonary arterial hypertension, 11 non-pulmonary arterial hypertension). Nine out of these PH patients died during a median follow-up period of 25 months. In 65 patients with PH, right ventricular end-diastolic dimension index (RVEDDI) evaluated by CMR was independently associated with mortality (hazard ratio 1.24; 95% CI: 1.08–1.46; P = 0.003). In a receiver operating characteristic analysis, RVEDDI highly predicted mortality, with area under the curve of 0.87. The 0.5–2-year follow-up data revealed that RVEDDI in both survivors and non-survivors did not significantly change over the clinical course, leading to the possibility that an early determination of RVEDDI could predict the prognosis. Conclusion RVEDDI simply evaluated by CMR could serve as a significant predictor of mortality in PH-CTD. A further validation cohort study is needed to confirm its usability.


2018 ◽  
Vol 05 (02) ◽  
pp. 107-109
Author(s):  
Jamir Pitton Rissardo ◽  
Ana Letícia Fornari Caprara

AbstractPulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a progressive pulmonary vasculopathy. A 29-year-old female patient presenting with dyspnea and syncope within 6 hours of onset was admitted to our hospital. The patient stated that she looked for a neurologist months ago because she experienced abrupt shaking limbs occurring during physical activity. She was diagnosed with focal seizure, and carbamazepine (CBZ) was started. On admission, she reported that the dyspnea had started in the last week and recurrent episodes of syncope in the last few hours. A right heart catheterization was diagnostic of PAH. She was started on spironolactone, furosemide, sildenafil, warfarin, and supplemental oxygen. On 10th admission day, the patient was seizure free and the dose of CBZ was tapered. In the follow-up, the patient remained seizure free. An investigation to search for a chronic lung disease or hypoxemia, systemic disorder, hematological disorder, and metabolic disorder was negative.


2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (Supplement_2) ◽  
Author(s):  
B Koell ◽  
S Ludwig ◽  
O Bhadra ◽  
A Gossling ◽  
N Schofer ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Pulmonary hypertension (PH) due to left heart disease is the most common form of PH. Published literature suggests increased perisurgical mortality in patients undergoing surgical repair in the setting of preexisting PH. The data on the impact of preexisting PH on clinical outcomes after percutaneous Mitral Valve Edge-to-Edge Repair (pMVR) is limited to observational studies and rely mostly on echocardiographic data. Purpose The aim of the current study is to evaluate the influence of preexisting PH in patients undergoing pMVR analyzing periprocedural invasive right heart catheterization data. Methods Between September 2008 and July 2018, a total of 911 patients with moderate-to-severe or severe mitral regurgitation (MR) underwent pMVR at our center. This analysis includes 331 patients with a complete data set for pre- and postprocedural right heart catheterization and echocardiographic assessment as well as available follow-up information after the implantation. Patients are divided according to the etiology of PH. The combined primary endpoint consists of all-cause mortality and rehospitalization for heart failure. Furthermore, a sub-analysis is performed for all patients with preexisting post-capillary PH. Patients with post-capillary PH are divided into two groups based on a postprocedural decrease of pulmonary artery wedge pressure (mPAWP) below the threshold of 15mmHg. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses are performed to assess the influence on long-term outcome. Results Of all 331 patients (57.7% [n= 191] male) undergoing pMVR, 195 (62.1%) had functional MR. Median ejection fraction was 40.5% (29.3, 54.0). Patients were followed-up for a maximum of 4.41 years and the median follow-up time was 1.98 years. Preexisting PH (mean pulmonary artery pressure ≥25 mmHg) was found in 236 (71.1%) patients: 49 patients had pre-capillary PH (≤15 mmHg), 187 had post-capillary PH (pcPH; n=183; mPAWP &gt;15 mmHg). In Kaplan-Meier analysis, no statistically significant difference could be found in overall mortality in patients without or with PH, irrespective of etiology (p=0.43). However, in patients suffering from post-capillary PH, patients with a postprocedural reduction of mPAWP below the threshold of 15mmHg showed a significantly lower risk for overall long-term mortality compared to patients without a relevant mPAWP reduction (p=0.018). Multivariate analysis revealed acute postprocedural decrease of mPAWP below 15mmHg in patients with post-capillary PH to have a significant influence on mortality (HR 2.81 [1.35, 5.86]; p=0.006; Figure 1). Conclusion In contrast to previously published findings, the present results were not able to show a significant impact of PH, disregarding its etiology, on outcome. Nevertheless, a postprocedural decrease of mPAWP below 15mmHg in patients with post-capillary PH is associated with a favorable outcome. Figure 1 Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding source: None


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