Left atrial strain in acute heart failure: clinical and prognostic insights.

Aims: In acute heart failure (AHF), the consequences of impaired left atrial (LA) mechanics are not well understood. We aimed to define the clinical trajectory of LA mechanics by left atrial strain (LAS) analysis.

Methods And Results: Eighty-five consecutive AHF patients with reduced, mildly reduced, and preserved left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) were enrolled in the LAS-AHF trial and underwent LA mechanics analysis by speckle tracking echocardiography.