What is an Echocardiogram?
As part of the BEAT-AFib Study, participants undergo an echocardiogram (also referred to as a cardiac echo, an echo, or an ultrasound of the heart). This common test allows us to visualize the heart’s structure and the flow of blood through the heart’s chambers and valves.
Since the study started 5 years ago in September 2020, we have started to analyze data from your echos. Continue reading to learn about how your data has been used to discover more about heart disease.
What Are We Looking For?
We are interested in a variety of different features of the heart and how they are functioning. We are able to obtain so much information from the echo, so we will use the left atrium (LA), one of the upper chambers of the heart, as an example. During the echo, we not only take pictures of the atrium from various angles, but we can also see how the LA is functioning; i.e. we can see, in real-time, the LA filling up with blood and then contracting and pushing it to the left ventricle. We are then able to calculate how well the LA is working.
There is increasing evidence that any strain on the functioning of the LA is associated with the development and progression of atrial fibrillation (AFib), and so we are hoping to collect LA strain data on all of our patients and compare the measurements from our AFib patients with our non-AFib patients. Beyond the LA, we take pictures and measurements of the other three chambers of the heart as well. The measurements and calculations performed with the LA is just one example of how ultrasound imaging can be used to further our understanding of AFib.
What Have We Discovered?
Your BEAT-AFib study echos are already being analyzed by our investigators to answer these questions. For example, Dr. Simon Feseha, a cardiology fellow at UCSF, along with Dr. Nelson Schiller, a cardiologist who specializes in cardiac imaging research, were interested in investigating the impact of AFib on LA function in patients who have a history of AFib. They hypothesized that these patients likely had altered LA function, and additionally that altered LA function might precede the development of AFib. They compared the echo data from our three study groups: 1) the At-Risk group, those who have no AFib and ≥ 2 clinical AFib risk factors (age ≥65, sleep apnea, BMI ≥30, hypertension, heart failure, chronic kidney disease), 2) the AFib group, described as participants with paroxysmal AFib, and 3) a control group. They found that patients with a history of AFib did in fact have altered LA function, and that altered LA function was prevalent in the At-Risk group, supporting their hypothesis that LA function precedes the development of AFib. Read the full abstract here.
Another study undertaken by Dr. Shohei Kataoka, a UCSF visiting assistant professor, looked at how frequent premature atrial complexes (PACs) can lead to atrial remodeling and, ultimately, AFib. Read more about it in our “AFib Research Update – July 2025” section of the newsletter.
These two studies are only two examples of the exciting research the BEAT-AFib study team and our collaborators are undertaking. None of this would be possible without your help and participation so stay tuned for more findings!
References:
- Feseha, S., Bibby, D., Fang, Q., Namjou, A., Hang, S., Olgin, J., & Schiller, N. (2024). Abstract 4142565: Dysfunction of left atrial physiology in patients with pAF despite return to sinus rhythm. Circulation, 150(Suppl_1). https://doi.org/10.1161/circ.150.suppl_1.4142565
