Why the study?
The left atrial appendage can lead to thrombus formation in non-valvular AF, warranting investigation into fluid dynamics and morphological features to evaluate connections between geometrical and hemodynamic indices and stroke risk.
How do different left atrial appendage (LAA) morphological shapes affect fluid dynamics and stroke risk indices in non-valvular atrial fibrillation?
How do different left atrial appendage (LAA) morphological shapes affect fluid dynamics and stroke risk indices in non-valvular atrial fibrillation?
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Computational fluid dynamics combined with morphological analysis reveals that cauliflower and cactus LAA shapes have reduced motility and lower flow velocities, potentially increasing thrombogenic risk in atrial fibrillation.
The left atrial appendage (LAA) is a complex cardiovascular structure which can yield to thrombi formation in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (AF). The study of LAA fluid dynamics together with morphological features should be investigated in order to evaluate the possible connection of geometrical and hemodynamics indices with the stroke risk. To reach this goal, we conducted a morphological analysis of four different LAA shapes considering their variation during the cardiac cycle and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations in AF conditions were carried out. The analysis of main geometrical LAA parameters showed a huger ostium and a reduced motility for the cauliflower and cactus shapes, as well as a lower velocity values from the CFD analysis. Such findings are in line with literature and highlight the importance of coupling dynamics imaging data with CFD calculations for providing information not available at clinical level.
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Fanni et al. (2020) studied this question.
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