LAUSR

We read the excellent article of the … (manuscript JCU-21-787) with great interest. The authors assessed the feasibility and contribution of the left atrium (LA) global peak longitudinal strain rate (LASRs), early and late diastolic LA strain (LASRe and LASRa), and real-time three-dimensional (RT-3D) LA volume for the assessment of LA functional changes in patients with triple-vessel coronary artery disease without myocardial infarction. 1 They used speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) and RT-3DE (real-time three-dimensional echocardiography). The authors found that reservoir and conduit function was diminished according to the severity of coronary artery stenosis and a negative correlation between NT-pro-BNP and global peak longitudinal strain rate and late diastolic LA strain. The LA, this frail cardiac structure interposed between the pulmonary veins and the left ventricle (LV), is very important in maintaining cardiac performance. In this context, the damage early detection by non-invasive imaging of changes in function of the LA before the clinical manifestations of some cardiac pathologies (subclinical stage) might play an essential role in their diagnosis and prognosis. The latest European acute and chronic coronary syndrome guidelines suggest the use of STE to unmasks the presence of ischemia in the absence of visual wall motion abnormalities. 2,3 Longitudinal strain in stress echocardiography has a high diagnostic sensitivity (77%) specificity (78%)