ABSTRACT
Introduction: Atrial fibrillation [AF] is a common dysrhythmia postoperatively after coronary artery bypass grafting [CABG]. Myocardial strain and strain-rate imaging is used for the assessment of postoperative atrial fibrillation [POAF] as a new echocardiographic method
Methods: PubMed and Scopus were searched thoroughly using the following search terms: [strain and strain rate] AND [atrial fibrillation OR AF] on March 2015 to find English articles in which the strain and strain-rate echocardiographic imaging had been used for the evaluation of AF in patients undergone CABG. Full text of the relevant papers was fully reviewed for data extraction
Result: Of overall 6 articles found in PubMed, 10 records found in Scopus and 4 articles found through reference list search, only 6 papers fully met the inclusion criteria for further assessment and data extraction. The results of strain and strain-rate assessment showed that in total of 542 patients undergoing CABG, POAF occurred in 106 patients. Studies showed that the reduction of left atrial [LA] strain rate is correlated with AF. Consistently, the results of present review showed that LA strain and strain-rate in patients who developed AF postoperatively after CABG are significantly reduced, suggesting that strain and strain-rate could be a predictor of POAF
Conclusion: Based on the obtained results, strain and strain-rate is a suitable and accurate echocardiographic technique in the assessment of left atrial function, and it might be helpful to detect the patients who are at high risk of POAF