Usefulness of Biaxial Left Atrial Dimension Measurements by Echocardiography

Abstract

Left atrial dimension (LAD) has been shown to mirror the magnitude of pulmonary blood flow. Additionally, left atrial dimension is useful for following patients with mitral insufficiency and obstruction. However, a single Diane measurement of the left atrium can be misleading if the left atrium is not spherical. To determine the probability of detecting non-spherical left atrium we performed biaxial measurements on 6 2 randomly selected patients. The Z-axis-LAD(ZLAD) was measured via the precordial approach, the Y-axis (YLAD) was measured by the suprasternal notch utilizing a special transducer. The correlation coefficient for all patients was.97 (±.17 S.E.E.). The mean YLAD was 1.96 (±.10 SE). Mean ZLAD was 1.89 (±10 SE). Some patients were detected who had a nonspherical left atrium as determined by the biaxial measurement. Some of these had pectus excavatum, others did not.