Samiullah, Muhammad Abdur Rauf, Saleemullah, Imran Khan.
Frequency of left atrial enlargement in patients with persistent non valvular atrial fibrillation.
J Cardiovascular Dis Jan ;12(1):9-12.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine the frequency of left atrial enlargement in patients with persistent non valvular Atrial Fibrillation MATERIALS AND METHODS:This cross sectional descriptive study was conducted at Post Graduate Medical Institute Hayat Abad Medical Complex, Peshawar from March 2014 to September 2014. A total of 195 consecutive patients with persistent non-valvular atrial fibrillation were included in the study. All the patients underwent 2D Echo for left atrial size. Data was collected using a pre-formed proforma and analyzed with SPSS version 20. RESULTS:A total of 195 patients with non-valvular persistent AF were enrolled in this study. There were 125 (64.1%) male and 70 (35.9%) female patients. The mean age of the patients was 57.49 ± 8.72 years. Left Atrial enlargement was found in 113 (57.9%) patients. Among these 113 patients 82 (72.56%) were male, and 31 (27.4%) were female. CONCLUSION:Left atrial enlargement is a common finding in patients with non valvular persistent Atrial Fibrillation. It should be part of complete ECHO assessment of the heart and timely identified in order to prevent the long term complications of LA enlargement.

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