Ancona Roberta, Comenale Pinto Salvatore, Caso Pio, D'Andrea Antonello, Di Salvo Giovanni, Arenga Fortunato, Coppola Maria Gabriella, Sellitto Vincenzo, Macrino Maria, Calabrò Raffaele
Noninvasive Cardiology Unit, Department of Cardiology, Monaldi Hospital, A.O.R.N. dei Colli, Via Leonardo Bianchi, 80131 Naples, Italy.
Monaldi Hospital, A.O.R.N. dei Colli, Via Leonardo Bianchi, 80131 Naples, Italy.
ScientificWorldJournal. 2014;2014:451042. doi: 10.1155/2014/451042. Epub 2014 Jun 9.
Although often referred to as "the forgotten chamber", compared with left ventricle (LV), especially in the past years, the left atrium (LA) plays a critical role in the clinical expression and prognosis of patients with heart and cerebrovascular disease, as demonstrated by several studies. Echocardiographers initially focused on early detection of atrial geometrical abnormalities through monodimensional atrial diameter quantification and then bidimensional (2D) areas and volume estimation. Now, together with conventional echocardiographic parameters, new echocardiographic techniques, such as strain Doppler, 2D speckle tracking and three-dimensional (3D) echocardiography, allow assessing early LA dysfunction and they all play a fundamental role to detect early functional remodelling before anatomical alterations occur. LA dysfunction and its important prognostic implications may be detected sooner by LA strain than by volumetric measurements.
尽管左心房常被称为“被遗忘的腔室”，但与左心室（LV）相比，尤其是在过去几年中，多项研究表明，左心房（LA）在心血管疾病患者的临床表现和预后中起着关键作用。超声心动图检查人员最初专注于通过单维心房直径量化，然后是二维（2D）面积和容积估计来早期检测心房几何形状异常。现在，与传统的超声心动图参数一起，新的超声心动图技术，如应变多普勒、二维斑点追踪和三维（3D）超声心动图，能够评估左心房早期功能障碍，并且在解剖学改变发生之前检测早期功能重塑方面都发挥着重要作用。与容积测量相比，通过左心房应变可能更早地检测到左心房功能障碍及其重要的预后意义。
