Interesting information from Dr. Virend Somers at Mayo Clinic today at the AFib Summit portion of the Heart Rhythm Society meeting. He proposed a mechanism that might explain why the left atrium is enlarged in patients with obstructive sleep apnea: the negative intrathoracic pressure generated during periods of apnea repetitively during the evening may cause a dilation and stretch of the left atrium due to a trans-atrial wall pressure gradient.
Sometimes simple explanations may be some of the best....
Perhaps Medtronic could resurrect their Chronicle hemodynamic monitor to look at this, eh?
-Wes
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