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Updated: Aug 18, 2026

Estimating Bilateral Atrial Function by Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Feature Tracking in Patients with Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation
Published on: July 20, 2022
How structurally normal are human atria in patients with atrial fibrillation?
1Department of Cardiovascular Pathology, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. aebecker@prettel.nl
Abstract:
Atrial myocardium in humans shows structural changes that increase with aging. The most conspicuous are fibro-fatty replacement and patchy replacement fibrosis. The present study reveals that these structural changes are more extensive in hearts of patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF) than in "no AF" hearts. The changes involve the myocardial sleeves on pulmonary veins and sites of rapid conduction, such as the terminal crest and Bachmann's bundle. These structural changes should be taken into consideration as potential substrates for initiation and maintenance of atrial arrhythmias.
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