ArticlePacing and clinical electrophysiology : PACE2013
Use of computed tomography to identify atrial fibrillation associated differences in left atrial wall thickness and density.
Article in Pacing and clinical electrophysiology : PACE, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Preprocedural cardiac computed tomography assessment of left atrial posterior wall morphology predicts atrial tachyarrhythmia recurrence after cryoballoon pulmonary vein isolation.Heart rhythm O2 · 2026Article
- An efficient end-to-end computational framework for the generation of ECG calibrated volumetric models of human atrial electrophysiology.Medical image analysis · 2026Article
- Segmental analysis of left atrial substrate severity predictors in patients undergoing persistent atrial fibrillation ablation.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2026Article
- Clinical Characteristics and Rhythm Outcomes in Patients With Atrial Myopathy After Successful Catheter Ablation of Atrial Fibrillation.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2024Article
- Reproducibility analysis of the computerized tomography angiography-derived left atrial wall thickness maps.Journal of interventional cardiac electrophysiology : an international journal of arrhythmias and pacing · 2023Article
- Standardised computed tomographic assessment of left atrial morphology and tissue thickness in humans.International journal of cardiology. Heart & vasculature · 2021Article
- Algorithms for left atrial wall segmentation and thickness - Evaluation on an open-source CT and MRI image database.Medical image analysis · 2018Article
- Gender-related Difference in Clinical Outcome of the Patient with Atrial Fibrillation after Radiofrequency Catheter Ablation.Korean circulation journal · 2018Article
- The role of myocardial wall thickness in atrial arrhythmogenesis.Europace : European pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac electrophysiology : journal of the working groups on cardiac pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac cellular electrophysiology of the European Society of Cardiology · 2016Review
- Anatomical Evaluation of the Pulmonary Veins and the Left Atrium Using Computed Tomography Before Catheter Ablation: Reproducibility of Measurements.Polish journal of radiology · 2016Article
- Article
- CT coronary angiography in atrial fibrillation: a comparison of radiation dose and diagnostic confidence with retrospective gating vs prospective gating with systolic acquisition.The British journal of radiology · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
introductionLeft atrial (LA) tissue characteristics may play an important role in atrial fibrillation (AF) induction and perpetuation. Although frequently used in clinical practice, computed tomography (CT) has not been employed to describe differences in LA wall properties between AF patients and controls. We sought to noninvasively characterize AF-associated differences in LA tissue using CT.
methodsCT images of the LA were obtained in 98 consecutive patients undergoing AF ablation and in 89 controls. A custom software algorithm was used to measure wall thickness and density in four prespecified regions of the LA.
resultsOn average, LA walls were thinner (-15.5%, 95% confidence interval [CI] -23.2 to -7.8%, P < 0.001) and demonstrated significantly lower density (-19.7 Hounsfield Units [HU], 95% CI -27.0 to -12.5 HU, P < 0.001) in AF patients compared to controls. In linear mixed models adjusting for demographics, clinical variables, and other CT measurements, the average LA, interatrial septum, LA appendage, and anterior walls remained significantly thinner in AF patients. After adjusting for the same potential confounders, history of AF was associated with reduced density in the LA anterior wall and increased density below the right inferior pulmonary vein and in the LA appendage.
conclusionApplication of an automated measurement algorithm to CT imaging of the atrium identified significant thinning of the LA wall and regional alterations in tissue density in patients with a history of AF. These findings suggest differences in LA tissue composition can be noninvasively identified and quantified using CT.
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