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Updated: Jun 15, 2026

Estimating Bilateral Atrial Function by Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Feature Tracking in Patients with Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation
Published on: July 20, 2022
Prevalence of interatrial block in patients with Friedreich's ataxia
Marios Panas1, Elias Gialafos2, Kostas Spengos1
1First Dept. of Neurology, Medical School, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece.
Unlabelled:
Interatrial block is a predictor of atrial arrhythmias. Aim of the present study was to estimate the prevalence of interatrial block (IAB) in Friedreich's Ataxia (FA) compared to controls and correlate it with echocardiographic and genetic features.
Methods:
IAB, defined as an electrocardiographic (ECG) derived P-wave duration >120 ms, echocardiographic variables and genetic markers were evaluated in 23 FA patients with no manifestation of cardiac involvement and were compared to 23 sex- and age-matched controls.
Results:
IAB was significantly more frequent among FA patients compared to controls (11/23 vs 1/23, p<0.005 respectively). However, no correlations with echocardiographic parameters or Guanine-Adenine-Adenine (GAA) trinucleotide repeat lengths could be established.
Conclusion:
Early recognition of IAB could allow the identification of asymptomatic FA patients who are prone to develop potentially life-threatening arrhythmias.
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