Tissue Velocity Imaging-Based Atrial Fibrillatory Cycle Length and Wall Motion for Predicting Atrial Structural Remodeling in Patients Undergoing Catheter Ablation

Background:Atrial fibrillation (AF) causes atrial electrical and structural remodeling, which are linked to recurrence of AF after ablation. Atrial fibrillatory cycle length (AFCL) and AF wall motion velocity (AFW-V) obtained by tissue velocity imaging (TVI) might characterize such atrial electrical and structural remodeling. The purpose of this study was to assess the clinical and electrophysiologic correlates of these parameters and their relation to ablation outcomes.Methods and Results:The study group comprised 80 patients who underwent transthoracic echocardiography followed by AF ablation. Atrial TVI traces were used to determine AFCL-tvi and AFW-V-tvi at the left atrial septal wall. AFCL that was measured from intracardiac electrograms correlated well with AFCL-tvi (R=0.6094; P=0.0002). AFW-V-tvi was significantly lower and AFCL-tvi was significantly shorter in patients with non-paroxysmal AF than in those with paroxysmal AF (1.63±0.76 cm/s vs. 2.85±1.00 cm/s, respectively, P