Modern methods of echocardiographic assessment of the functional status of the left atrium in atrial fibrillation

Abstract

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia, accompanied by significant morbidity and mortality among the entire population. In AF, it is the left atrium (LA) that is considered as a critical indicator of the development of adverse cardiovascular events. LA dilation followed by electrophysiological remodeling is a frequent observation in patients with AF.Thus, echocardiography (EchoCG) is of particular interest, in particular, the use of two-dimensional and threedimensional Speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) to study the morphofunctional state of LA at the patient's bedside.Currently, several major lecture reviews on echocardiographic assessment of LA function are presented in the domestic literature, but individual methods of radiation imaging and their correlation with each other have not been studied, there are only a couple of foreign meta-analyses on the assessment and analysis of the functional state of LA in patients with AF. This problem is relevant, since the establishment of predictors of AF at an early stage, in particular with its latent course, makes it possible to prevent the development of a number of complications associated with arrhythmia from ischemic strokes to sudden cardiac death.The purpose of this literature review is to present the data of recent studies on the assessment of the structure and function of LA using STE to identify patients with asymptomatic AF or a high risk of its recurrence after ablation procedures.