Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common type of cardiac arrhythmia in the world and is associated with a 5-fold increased risk of ischemic stroke. Therefore, stroke prevention is crucial to manage patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation, for which long-term oral anticoagulation is the therapeutic cornerstone. Many patients, however, have contraindications to anticoagulation due to poor adherence or bleeding complications and percutaneous left atrial appendage closure (LAAC) has thus emerged as a promising alternative to anticoagulant therapy. LAAC has entered the rapid progress of independent innovation and continuous technology improvement.
Traditional general anesthesia, which needs the guidance of transesophageal echocardiography and angiography, has gradually developed to the single ultrasound guidance under local anesthesia. However, many questions about LAAC are still unclear and our research topic wants to mainly focus on these that require further discussion so that we are able to shed light on what is the best guidance methods for LAAC, intracardiac echocardiography or transesophageal echocardiography, what is the best treatment strategy for left atrial appendage closure, what is the advantage of one-stop procedure versus only LAAC for patients undergoing one-stop procedure, what is the best order of closure, whether ablation first will increase the occurrence of residual shunt and esophageal damage, or whether occlusion first brings difficulties for subsequent ablation, and increases the risk of occluder deformation, displacement and shedding.
Furthermore, the process of endothelialization following implantation of the left atrial occluder is not fully understood, and device-related thrombosis remains a fatal weakness of LAAC, therefore the optimal antithrombotic regimen as well as duration can still confuse clinicians.
Given that there is the lack of comparative data between the related mechanisms of LAAC in both basic and clinical studies in a time when LAAC will continue to flourish, it’s worthwhile for this research topic to trace back to the roots to explore its basic mechanism and maximize its effectiveness in clinical research to promote its long-term development.
We welcome submissions on the following topics, but are not limited to:
- Anatomy and imaging techniques of left atrial appendage
- Standardized use of intracardiac echocardiography in left atrial appendage closure
- Effect of left atrial appendage occlusion on left cardiac function
- Which AF patients have the best benefit after left atrial appendage closure
- Advantages and disadvantages of one-stop procedure
- Complications and related factors related to left atrial appendage closure
- Application and individualization of different occluder
- Optimization of peri-procedure anticoagulation strategy
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common type of cardiac arrhythmia in the world and is associated with a 5-fold increased risk of ischemic stroke. Therefore, stroke prevention is crucial to manage patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation, for which long-term oral anticoagulation is the therapeutic cornerstone. Many patients, however, have contraindications to anticoagulation due to poor adherence or bleeding complications and percutaneous left atrial appendage closure (LAAC) has thus emerged as a promising alternative to anticoagulant therapy. LAAC has entered the rapid progress of independent innovation and continuous technology improvement.
Traditional general anesthesia, which needs the guidance of transesophageal echocardiography and angiography, has gradually developed to the single ultrasound guidance under local anesthesia. However, many questions about LAAC are still unclear and our research topic wants to mainly focus on these that require further discussion so that we are able to shed light on what is the best guidance methods for LAAC, intracardiac echocardiography or transesophageal echocardiography, what is the best treatment strategy for left atrial appendage closure, what is the advantage of one-stop procedure versus only LAAC for patients undergoing one-stop procedure, what is the best order of closure, whether ablation first will increase the occurrence of residual shunt and esophageal damage, or whether occlusion first brings difficulties for subsequent ablation, and increases the risk of occluder deformation, displacement and shedding.
Furthermore, the process of endothelialization following implantation of the left atrial occluder is not fully understood, and device-related thrombosis remains a fatal weakness of LAAC, therefore the optimal antithrombotic regimen as well as duration can still confuse clinicians.
Given that there is the lack of comparative data between the related mechanisms of LAAC in both basic and clinical studies in a time when LAAC will continue to flourish, it’s worthwhile for this research topic to trace back to the roots to explore its basic mechanism and maximize its effectiveness in clinical research to promote its long-term development.
We welcome submissions on the following topics, but are not limited to:
- Anatomy and imaging techniques of left atrial appendage
- Standardized use of intracardiac echocardiography in left atrial appendage closure
- Effect of left atrial appendage occlusion on left cardiac function
- Which AF patients have the best benefit after left atrial appendage closure
- Advantages and disadvantages of one-stop procedure
- Complications and related factors related to left atrial appendage closure
- Application and individualization of different occluder
- Optimization of peri-procedure anticoagulation strategy