The correlation between the left atrial volume index and atrial fibrillation development in heart failure with mildly reduced ejection fraction and long-term follow-up results

Abstract

Background

The European Society of Cardiology has recently defined heart failure (HF) patient group with a left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) of 41–49% as a different category with the term heart failure with mildly reduced ejection fraction (HFmrEF). In this study, we aimed to conduct a research about the correlation between left atrial volume index (LAVI) and atrial fibrillation in patients HFmrEF.

Methods

A total of 282 patients HFmrEF who were admitted to the cardiology department from three different centres were included in the study. The study was planned as multicenter, cross-sectional study. The patients were divided into two groups as sinus rhythm and atrial fibrillation based on their electrocardiographic findings.

Results

It was found out that Nt-ProBNP, LA area, LAVI, pulmonary artery pressure, and severe mitral regurgitation rates were significantly higher in the AF group (p < 0.001). ROC analysis resulting in LAVI > 30.5 had 64% sensitivity and 66% specificity in the predicting presence of AF (ROC area under the curve: 0.660, 95% CI: 0.587–0.733, p < 0.001). We also observed that the LA area being >16.55 predicting presence of AF with 60% sensitivity and 58% specificity (ROC area under the curve: 0.624, 95% CI: 0.549–0.699, p = 0.002).

Conclusion

In the study conducted, we found a correlation between AF and LAVI values in patients in the HFmrEF group. If the LAVI value increases in the follow-up of this group of patients with echocardiography, close follow-up in terms of AF may allow the early control and treatment of AF-related incidents.

Keywords:

• Atrial fibrillation
• left atrial volume index
• heart failure
• mildly reduced ejection fraction

Ethical approval

Ethics committee approval of the study was obtained from İzmir Bakırçay University with decision number 322.

Patients’ consent

Written informed consents were obtained from all patients included in the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).