Morphology Voltage P-wave Duration Score and Atrial Fibrillation Risk

All articles of this category Letter to: Do P-Wave Indices Manifest Atrial Fibrillation after Postoperative Atrial Fibrillation? Thorac Cardiovasc Surg eFirst DOI: 10.1055/a-2616-3919 We read with great interest the article by Rau et al.,[ 1 ] regarding wave indices, atrial fibrillation (AF), and postoperative AF. The authors show that patients with postoperative AF are prone to episodes of paroxysmal AF and that P-wave indices and perioperative dynamics of these indices may indicate a higher risk of manifest AF initiation among postoperative AF patients. Their data support that interatrial block is a pre-AF condition[ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] and that P-wave duration, dispersion, amplitude, and peak time might be used to predict AF risk. Unfortunately, the authors did not assess the value of the Morphology Voltage P-wave duration (MVP) score[ 5 ] as an AF predictor. The MVP score allocates points based on P-wave Morphology in inferior leads (non-biphasic <120 ms: 0; non-biphasic ≥120 ms: 1; biphasic: 2), Voltage in lead I (>0.20 mV: 0; 0.10–0.20 mV: 1; <0.10 mV: 2), and P-wave duration (<120 ms: 0; 120–140 ms: 1; >140 ms: 2). This score has been showed to be effective as an AF marker after coronary artery bypass graft surgery[ 6 ] and predicts AF predictors in population-based cohorts.[ 7 ] The current study would be an excellent opportunity to test its role in patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Publication History Received: 23 May 2025 Accepted: 10 July 2025 Article published online: 31 July 2025 © 2025. Thieme. All rights reserved. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Oswald-Hesse-Straße 50, 70469 Stuttgart, Germany Letter to this article: Do P-Wave Indices Manifest Atrial Fibrillation after Postoperative Atrial Fibrillation? Thorac Cardiovasc Surg eFirst DOI: 10.1055/a-2655-7502