Atrial fibrillation is the most common cardiac arrhythmia worldwide and prevalence is expected to continue rising at an exponential rate with an aging population and increasing rates of obesity and ...

Aside from aging itself, obesity appears to be the most powerful predictor of left atrial enlargement, upping one's risk of atrial fibrillation (the most common type of arrhythmia), stroke and death, ...

Left atrial enlargement refers to dilation of the left atrium which occurs from multiple disease states that can chronically increase the left atrial pressure. These include congestive heart failure, ...

November 9, 2009 (Augsburg, Germany) — Both obesity and hypertension were independently significant risk factors for left atrial (LA) enlargement--a risk factor for atrial fibrillation--in >1000 ...

Left atrial enlargement (LAE) is a common feature of hypertensive heart disease 1, 2 and is present in ~30% of the population with arterial hypertension. 3, 4 Most previous studies concerning the ...

Background: Atrial function is an integral part of cardiac function that is often neglected. The presence of left ventricule hypertrophy (LVH) due to arterial hypertension may impair atrial function.

Moderate consumption of alcohol is often touted as being heart healthy based on studies of coronary disease risk, but the message around drinking might be more complicated than that. Results of a new ...

A 54-year-old woman presents with new onset of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation documented on Holter monitoring. The patient does not report any cardiac complaints such as dyspnea, angina, or ...

Patients who have had an embolic stroke of undetermined source (ESUS) and have moderate-to-severe left atrial enlargement may benefit from empiric treatment with a direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC), a ...

In this Journal feature, information about a real patient is presented in stages (boldface type) to an expert clinician, who responds to the information by sharing relevant background and reasoning ...

The normal mitral valve permits unrestricted antegrade diastolic flow from the left atrium to the left ventricle (LV) and effectively seals off the atrium from the ventricle during LV systole, ...

This paper presents serial cardiac-catheterization data showing spontaneous functional closure of large symptomatic defects in 3 infants. One had an associated moderate-sized patent ductus arteriosus ...