Does left atrial strain assessment by TTE predict the presence of left atrial thromboembolic substrate in patients undergoing transesophageal echocardiography?
Assessment of left atrial strain via TTE significantly improves the prediction of left atrial appendage thrombus or sludge beyond standard clinical risk scores, potentially refining patient selection for TOE before rhythm-control procedures.
LAS was the most accurate TTE parameter for identifying LATS, indicating that reliance solely on clinical risk scores may miss high-risk patients. Assessment of LA cardiomyopathy by TTE could guide individualized decisions regarding TOE before elective rhythm-control procedures.
Frydas et al. (Thu,) studied this question.