Variations of left atrial activation patterns in congestive heart failure.

ABSTRACT

We report about a case of a patient admitted to the Intensive Cardiac Care Unit for severe congestive heart failure which showed modification of P-wave morphology and duration, correlated with the clinical evolution. In the case here described, we show that ECG analysis, specifically P wave, allow us to assess the hemodynamic evolution of the acute decompensated heart failure patient. Electrocardiographic examination is the first and the most simple and available diagnostic tool in the evaluation of patients with cardiac diseases. Usually, P-wave evaluation is not carefully assessed, in spite of very useful informations we can draw from its interpretation. We report about a patient admitted to our Intensive Cardiac Care Unit (ICCU) for severe congestive heart failure which showed peculiar modification of P-wave morphology and duration, well correlated with the clinical course.