Exciting new research from the BEAT-AFib Study
One of our colleagues in BEAT-AFib, Dr. Nelson Schiller, is currently analyzing echocardiograms collected from our study. The analyses compared BEAT-AFib patients with paroxysmal AFib to matched healthy controls. He demonstrated that AFib, which is commonly held to be a disease affecting the heart’s left atrium, may actually affect the heart’s right atrium as well. Prior studies found that patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation have enlarged left atria. Our findings indicate that despite the increase in left atrial size, the pumping function of the left atrium was normal. This reveals that left atrial dilatation precedes any decrease in atrial pump function. These are only preliminary results, but we hope, with your continued help, we will learn a lot more about how AFib affects the structure and function of our heart and how we can use this information to help prevent and treat this disease.
Other AFib Research from UCSF and Beyond
Dr. Gregory Marcus, Professor of Medicine and Associate Chief of Cardiology Research at UCSF, and his team looked at how acute alcohol consumption can cause AFib. Read more here.
The UCSF COVID-19 Citizen Science Study looked at the prevalence of arrhythmias after COVID-19 diagnosis. Read more here.
