A Morphological Study of Left Atrial Appendage in Egyptian patients Using multidetector computed tomography (MDCT

Abstract

In the Egyptian population, the Windsock left atrial appendage morphology was the most common (31.7%) followed by the Chicken Wing(25.7%) morphology and the cactus (19.8%) left atrial appendage morphology is the least prevalent in the Egyptian population. Female gender had more cauliflower and cactus morphologies as compared to the male gender. Females are more likely to have Cactus morphology (40% of Cactus morphology were females) or Cauliflower morphology (30% of Cauliflower morphology were females) and are least likely to have Windsock morphology (only 6.2% of Windsock morphology were females). On the other hand, males are more likely to have Windsock morphology (93.8% of Windsock morphology were males) and are least likely to have Cactus morphology (60.6% of cactus morphology were males) There was a significant positive correlation between left atrial appendage volume and age. On the other hand, left ejection fraction had a significant negative correlation with left atrial appendage volume. Dyslipidemia has a significant correlation with left atrial appendage volume. Being dyslipidemic will increase the possibility to have a larger left atrial appendage volume (Median 13.88 and IQR (8.34-16.11)) with a range of (4.25-26.68) than being not dyslipidemic (Median 10.25 and IQR (5.4-13.06)) with a range of (2.8-35.29). So Left atrial appendage morphology is variable among different races and differs significantly between males and females in the same population. The higher frequency of windsock morphology in males and cactus morphology in females warrants assessment of left atrial appendage morphological types in management of cardio-embolic stroke and also add to designing of LAA-occluding devices to prevent cardio-embolism.