title: Comparison of Prolonged Atrial Electromechanical Delays with Different Definitions in the Discrimination of Patients with Non-Valvular Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Previous studies have evaluated atrial electromechanical delays (AEMDs) with a number of different definitions to discriminate patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF) from controls without PAF. However, their discriminative values for PAF have not previously been directly compared.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 65 PAF patients and 130 control subjects matched for age, sex, history of hypertension, and diabetes mellitus were selected. The AEMDi and AEMDp were defined as the time intervals from the initiation of the P wave on the surface electrocardiogram to the initiation and peak of the late diastolic transmitral inflow on pulsed wave Doppler images, respectively. The AEMDim and AEMDpm were defined as the time intervals from the initiation of the P wave on the surface electrocardiogram to the initiation and peak of the late diastolic lateral mitral annular motion on tissue Doppler images, respectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were no significant differences in the clinical characteristics between the two groups. All 4 AEMDs were consistently longer in the PAF group, and proven effective to differentiate the PAF patients from the controls. The AEMDi measurement had a larger area under the curve (AUC) than the other AEMDs, left atrial volume index, and P wave amplitude. However, the AEMDp, AEMDim, and AEMDpm measurements had AUCs similar to those of the left atrial volume index and P wave amplitude.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings suggest that the AEMDi is better than the other AEMDs for the discrimination of PAF patients from the controls.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Dong-A University Medical Center, Busan, Korea.
authors.forename: Dong Hyun
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Dong-A University Medical Center, Busan, Korea.
authors.forename: Sun Young
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Dong-A University Medical Center, Busan, Korea.
authors.forename: Jong Sung
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Dong-A University Medical Center, Busan, Korea.
authors.forename: Jeong-Min
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Seo
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Dong-A University Medical Center, Busan, Korea.
authors.forename: Jae-Hyuk
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Dong-A University Medical Center, Busan, Korea.
authors.forename: Young-Rak
authors.initials: YR
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Dong-A University Medical Center, Busan, Korea.
authors.forename: Kyungil
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Dong-A University Medical Center, Busan, Korea.
authors.forename: Moo Hyun
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Dong-A University Medical Center, Busan, Korea.
authors.forename: Young-Dae
authors.initials: YD
authors.lastname: Kim
keywords: Atrial fibrillation; Echocardiography; Electrocardiography