Quantitative Assessment of Right Atrial Function by Strain Imaging in Adult Patients with Totally Corrected Tetralogy of Fallot

Atrial function could be affected by many cardiac disorders. Recently Strain imaging has been employed for the assessment of atrial function in several disorders involving atria. We aimed to measure the right atrial function by this method in adult patients with surgically corrected Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF). Forty six adult patients with TOF who underwent total correction surgery in childhood and had severe pulmonary regurgitation and fulfilled the criteria of ACC/AHA guideline for PVR enrolled. The control group included 50 healthy adults with matched age and sex. Standard transthoracic echocardiography was performed on both groups which myocardial velocities and strain imaging indices were obtained from their RA free wall. The myocardial velocities and deformational indices of RA free wall were significantly compromised in TOF patients compared with normal subjects. There was no correlation between RA function data measured by strain imaging and RV volume measured in CMR. In light of our findings, we concluded that RA function is severely diminished in adult patients with TOF. It would play an important role in pathophysiological process of the right sided heart failure in these patients.