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The Right Atrium

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Textbook of Three-Dimensional Echocardiography

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Abstract

Right atrium (RA) has been a neglected heart chamber for long time. Only recently, the recognition of its role in assisting right ventricular filling, the demonstration of the predictive value of RA size in various pathological conditions, and the identification of the RA as a target and transit chamber for many interventional procedures have raised clinical interest in RA assessment. Accordingly, three-dimensional echocardiography (3DE) has acquired an important role in RA evaluation. It allows to visualize internal structures of the RA with a richness of details that is comparable with the anatomical specimens. This capability is used more and more in the electrophysiology and catheterization laboratories and moreover it demonstrated to be useful in differentiating normal from pathological anatomical structures.

Recently, the updated guidelines on cardiac chamber quantification by echocardiography have introduced the RA volume as the recommended parameter to report RA size. 3DE demonstrated its capability to accurately measure RA volume, indipendently from any geometrical assumption about its shape, overcoming the limitations of two-dimensional echocardiography. Furthermore, 3DE enables measurement of RA volume in different moments of the cardiac cycle (maximum, minimum and pre-atrial contraction volumes), allowing evaluation of RA phasic function, in term of emptying volumes and fractions.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cardiology Unit, Ospedale SS Giovanni e Paolo, Venice, Italy

    Diletta Peluso

  2. Cardiovascular Imaging Research and Innovation Lab, Institute of Cardiology - University Foundation of Cardiology, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

    Marcelo Haertel Miglioranza

  3. PREVENCOR—Mãe de Deus Hospital, Porto Alegre, Brazil

    Marcelo Haertel Miglioranza

Authors
  1. Diletta Peluso
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  2. Marcelo Haertel Miglioranza
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Milano-Bicocca and Istituto Auxologico Italiano, IRCCS, San Luca Hospital, Milano, Italy

    Luigi P. Badano

  2. Department of Medicine, University of Chicago Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA

    Roberto M. Lang

  3. University of Milano-Bicocca and Istituto Auxologico Italiano, IRCCS, San Luca Hospital, Milano, Italy

    Denisa Muraru

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Peluso, D., Miglioranza, M.H. (2019). The Right Atrium. In: Badano, L., Lang, R., Muraru, D. (eds) Textbook of Three-Dimensional Echocardiography. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14032-8_23

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14032-8_23

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-14030-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-14032-8

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