No abstract

Mitral annular disjunction was detected not only in patients with a myxomatous mitral valve but also in normal cases. The number of MVPs was significantly larger in patients with mitral annular disjunction than patients without mitral annular disjunction. Further investigation is needed to clarify the clinical significance of the mitral annular disjunction detected by routine echocardiography.

eft atrial (LA) enlargement is associated with cardiovascular disease and is a risk factor for atrial fibrillation, stroke, and death. 1,2 However, LA antero-posterior dimensions have well-known limitations for indicators of chamber size, for example, the left ventricular (LV) dimension is a poor indicator of LV volume. Two-dimensional (D) echocardiography-derived LA volume has been shown to provide a more accurate assessment of LA size than the M-mode LA dimension. [3][4][5][6][7][8] Recent studies demonstrated that the LA volume was more strongly associated with the future development of atrial fibrillation than LA dimension. 9,10 The LA volume was also strongly associated with the prognosis of patients with acute myocardial infarction 11 and dilated cardiomyopathy. 12 Methods to calculate LA volume have been described, [3][4][5][6] but the distribution of LA volume in normal Japanese subjects who do not have cardiovascular disease has not been reported. Our objective was to provide reference ranges of the LA volume in healthy Japanese adults. Methods Study SubjectsEligible subjects were adults ≥20 years of age who were referred for outpatient transthoracic echocardiographic examination because of non-specific chest symptoms. All subjects had sinus rhythm, and no history of atrial arrhyth-

SDI derived from 3DE is a useful parameter to assess global LV systolic dyssynchrony and predict responses to CRT.

Isolated papillary muscle hypertrophy can cause ECG abnormalities such as LV high voltage and LV strain pattern. Particular attention must be paid to the papillary muscle during echocardiographic examinations.