[Predictive factors of atrial fibrillation in mitral stenosis. Clinical and echocardiographic study]

The objective of this study was to define the predictive factors of atrial fibrillation in pure or very predominant mitral stenosis in a series of 472 consecutive patients divided into 2 groups according to the presence (group I: n = 113) or absence (group II: n = 359) of permanent atrial fibrillation. Univariate analysis showed that predictive factors for atrial fibrillation in mitral stenosis are age (40.3 +/- 9 years vs 31.4 +/- 9.5, p < 0.0001), history of commissurotomy or mitral angioplasty (13 cases vs 10, p < 0.01), functional class III or IV (36 cases vs 43, p < 0.01), history of valvular heart disease (8.4 +/- 7.3 years vs 6.4 +/- 9.2, p < 0.05), left atrial diameter (53.3 +/- 10.3 mm vs 46.5 +/- 8.5, p < 0.0001) and mitral surface area (1.1 +/- 0.4 cm2 vs 1.3 +/- 0.4, p < 0.0001). On multivariate analysis, age and left atrial dilatation were independent predictive factors of atrial fibrillation in mitral stenosis.