Background: The predisposition to atrial fibrillation (AF) in mitral stenosis (MS) has been demonstrated with several electrocardiographic (increased P-wave dispersion) and echocardiographic parameters (atrial electromechanical delay). After percutaneous mitral balloon valvuloplasty (PMBV), the improvement in echocardiographic parameters related to AF risk is unknown. We aimed to assess the interatrial electromechanical coupling by Tissue Doppler Imaging (TDI) echocardiography in MS before and after PBMV. Patients and methods: This study included 45 patients with moderate to severe MS who underwent successful PMBV without complication at our clinic and 20 healthy volunteers as a control group. We compared the two groups in regard to clinical, electrocardiographic and echocardiographic features. The patients with MS were also evaluated one week after PMBV. Interatrial electromechanical delay (EMD) was measured by TDI before and after PMBV and we compared the results.Abbreviations: A 0 wave, peak late annular velocity by TDI; AF, atrial fibrillation; BSA, body surface area; LA, left atrium; LAA, left atrial area; LAD, left atrial dimension; LAEF, left atrial ejection fraction; LAEI, left atrial expansion index; LAV, left atrial volume; MS, mitral stenosis; MV, mitral valve; MVA, mitral valve area; P-A 0 , the time interval from the initiation of the P wave on the ECG until the beginning of the late diastolic TDI signal at the lateral border of the annulus; PBMV, percutaneous balloon mitral valvuloplasty; P-max, maximum P-wave duration; P-min, minimum P-wave duration; PWD, P-wave dispersion; SPAP, systolic pulmonary artery pressure; TDI, Tissue Doppler Imaging Results: The interatrial EMD (56.4 ± 15.8 vs. 34.6 ± 7.2 ms, p < 0.001) was higher in patients with MS as compared to healthy individuals. The maximum P-wave duration (P-max) and Pwave dispersion (PWD) showed significant positive correlation with the interatrial EMD (r = 0.37, p < 0.05 and r = 0.41, p < 0.05 respectively). There was a highly significant decrease in the interatrial EMD (56.4 ± 15.8 vs. 38.3 ± 10.4 ms, p < 0.001) one week after PBMV. Conclusion: The current study showed significant increase in the interatrial EMD in patients with moderate to severe MS. These changes improved significantly after PMBV.ª 2015 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Egyptian Society of Cardiology. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).