Clinical and Prognostic Implications of Methods and Partition Values Used to Assess Left Atrial Volume by Two-Dimensional Echocardiography

Prognostic Significance of Echocardiographic Measures of Cardiac Remodeling

“…Recent investigations have underscored the prognostic importance of LA size as well as LA dysfunction, including variations in LAEF and the closely correlated LA functional index, to a range of outcomes, i.e., death, CVD, HF, and AF, in the general population and in other referral samples. 13,20,47,49 However, in our investigation LAEF did not add incremental prognostic information over LAVImin (Table 3); the addition of LAEF to a model that already included LAVImin did not lead to a further increase in the model C-statistic. Recent studies have suggested that LA minimal volume may be a more sensitive marker of LV diastolic dysfunction 50 and cardiac hemodynamic load as gauged by brain natriuretic peptide elevations.…”

“…7 Several of the aforementioned echocardiographic indices have been associated individually with the risk of coronary artery disease, stroke, congestive heart failure (CHF), atrial fibrillation (AF), and death, both in samples with and without prevalent cardiovascular disease. [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] Yet, to our knowledge, no prior study has performed a direct comparison of a panel of these echocardiographic measures against one another in a community-based sample. Aim of our study was to investigate if there is one or if there are several echocardiographic measures which outperform the others in risk stratification in the general population.…”

Cardiac Imaging for the Assessment of Left Atrial Mechanics Across Heart Failure Stages

“…Hence, dedicated apical LA views should be exploited ( 58 ). The algorithm used for volume calculation represents another source of potential bias, having been shown that the area-length method provides larger volumes than Simpson disk summation ( 62 ). Nevertheless, the LA expansion index, derived by volumes estimated using Simpson disk summation, has been recently shown to predict the presence of increased pulmonary wedge pressure.…”

Evaluation of Left Atrial Size and Function: Relevance for Clinical Practice

“…21 The biplane area-length method systematically yields larger LA volumes than the disk summation method. 22,23 However, both methods have comparable prognostic power. 23 More recently, a novel 2DE tissue tracking technique to trace the endocardium can provide volumes that correlate well with 3DE LA volumes, while demonstrating less interobserver variability than manual tracing.…”

“…22,23 However, both methods have comparable prognostic power. 23 More recently, a novel 2DE tissue tracking technique to trace the endocardium can provide volumes that correlate well with 3DE LA volumes, while demonstrating less interobserver variability than manual tracing. 24 Body size is a determinant of LA size, and absolute LA volumes are larger in men than in women 20 ; indexation to body surface area (LAVI) corrects for the effect of sex 6,22 Two-dimensional echocardiography LA volumes have been similar in population-based studies 18 and in studies of healthy volunteers.…”