Özkartal T, Tanner FC, Niemann M. Asymptomatic post-rheumatic giant left atrium. World J Cardiol 2016; 8(6): 375-378 [PMID: 27354895 DOI: 10.4330/wjc.v8.i6.375]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Tardu Özkartal, MD, Clinic of Cardiology, University Heart Center, University Hospital Zurich, Rämistrasse 100, 8091 Zurich, Switzerland. tardu.oezkartal@usz.ch
Research Domain of This Article
Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems
Article-Type of This Article
Case Report
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Cardiol. Jun 26, 2016; 8(6): 375-378 Published online Jun 26, 2016. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v8.i6.375
Asymptomatic post-rheumatic giant left atrium
Tardu Özkartal, Felix C Tanner, Markus Niemann
Tardu Özkartal, Felix C Tanner, Clinic of Cardiology, University Heart Center, University Hospital Zurich, 8091 Zurich, Switzerland
Markus Niemann, Faculty of Mechanical and Medical Engineering, Furtwangen University, 78054 Villingen-Schwenningen, Germany
Author contributions: All the authors contributed to the acquisition of data, drafting, writing, and revision of the manuscript; the final manuscript was approved by all authors.
Institutional review board statement: Since this is not a study but just a case report, there is no institutional review board statement.
Informed consent statement: This study was approved by the local ethics committee.
Conflict-of-interest statement: None of the authors has any conflicts of interests to declare.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Tardu Özkartal, MD, Clinic of Cardiology, University Heart Center, University Hospital Zurich, Rämistrasse 100, 8091 Zurich, Switzerland. tardu.oezkartal@usz.ch
Telephone: +41-44-2552846 Fax: +41-44-2554401
Received: January 29, 2016 Peer-review started: February 1, 2016 First decision: March 1, 2016 Revised: April 1, 2016 Accepted: April 14, 2016 Article in press: April 18, 2016 Published online: June 26, 2016 Processing time: 145 Days and 12.2 Hours
Abstract
A 78-year-old asymptomatic woman was referred to our clinic for a second opinion regarding indication for mitral valve surgery. An echocardiogram showed a moderate mitral stenosis with a concomitant severe regurgitation. The most striking feature, however, was a giant left atrium with a parasternal anteroposterior diameter of 79 mm and a left atrial volume index of 364 mL/m². There are various echocardiographic definitions of a giant left atrium, which are mainly based on measurements of the anteroposterior diameter of the left atrium using M-mode in the parasternal long axis view. Since the commonly accepted method for echocardiographic evaluation of left atrial size is left atrial volume index, we propose a cut-off value of 140 mL/m2 for the definition of a “giant left atrium”.
Core tip: There are various echocardiographic definitions of a giant left atrium, which are mainly based on measurements of the anteroposterior diameter of the left atrium using M-mode in the parasternal long axis view. Since the commonly accepted method for echocardiographic evaluation of left atrial size is left atrial volume index, we propose a cut-off value of 140 mL/m2 for the definition of a “giant left atrium”.
