Background: The purpose of this meta-analysis was to analyze the clinical relevance of left atrial (LA) strain to predict recurrence of atrial fibrillation (AF) after catheter ablation (CA). Methods and Results: We searched in different databases (Medline, EMBASE, and Cochrane) prospective studies that analyzed LA strain before CA. Eight studies (2 with only paroxysmal AF and 6 with mixed population of paroxysmal and persistent AF) were included in the final analysis (total patient number = 686 [66-100%]). In line, these results were similar using LA strain with QRS-analysis and P-analysis as well as using different software package such as Echo-Pac, QLab, TomTec, and VVI. Conclusion: In patients with AF candidate for CA, the analysis of the LA using LA strain could be of great usefulness to identify patients with high risk of AF recurrence. Nonetheless, further studies are needed to establish the clinical relevance of LA strain in patients with persistent AF. (Echocardiography 2016;33:724-733)
Our data demonstrate the necessity of systematic postmortem CIED interrogation in forensic medicine to determine the cause and timing of death more accurately. In addition, CIED analysis is an important tool to detect potential CIED-related safety issues.
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