Resting Echocardiographic Assessments of Left Atrial Function and Filling Pressure Interest in the Understanding of Exercise Capacity in Patients with Chronic Congestive Heart Failure

Reduced left atrial function on exercise in patients with heart failure and normal ejection fraction

“…The predictive power of Am alone was greater than the ratio of E/E′ that has been claimed to be an index of LV end-diastolic pressure 18. Am has also been found to be predictive of exercise capacity in chronic heart failure in previous studies 23 24. However, in our study, peak Am on exercise correlated better with exercise capacity as measured by peak VO 2 max suggesting again that peak atrial performance on exercise is the more critical and relevant measurement.…”

Left Atrial Remodeling and Function in Advanced Heart Failure With Preserved or Reduced Ejection Fraction

“…1 Left atrial (LA) dysfunction and remodeling are commonly observed in patients with heart failure (HF). Growing evidence suggests that LA dysfunction is an active contributor to symptoms [2][3][4][5] and to disease progression. 3,6,7 HF-related LA remodeling is poorly understood, and it is not known whether there are fundamental differences between HF patients with preserved (HFpEF) or reduced LV ejection fraction (HFrEF), though prior studies suggest greater adverse effects from loss of LA function in HFpEF compared with HFrEF.…”

Dobutamine-induced changes of left atrial two-dimensional deformation predict clinical and neurohumoral improvement after levosimendan treatment in patients with acutely decompensated chronic heart failure

“…However, depression of atrial pump performance will eventually occur as the heart failure progresses, despite increased atrial preload, due to myopathic process and/or over-distension of atrial fibers. Thus, in chronic heart failure both velocity and strain during atrial contraction independently predict exercise capacity [20]. In this respect this is the first study in heart failure patients trying to identify patients prone to response to levosimendan treatment.…”