Background:
Echocardiography can provide comprehensive information concerning thromboembolic risk in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). Global LA strain associated with a higher prevalence of left atrial stasis and is superior to conventional parameters of LA analysis as thromboembolic risk stratification of AF. The aim of this work is to demonstrate the importance of global LA Strain as predictor of stroke risk in patients with AF after PCI.

Patients and methods:
This work included 63 consecutive coronary artery disease patients who were admitted for elective PCI (42 with permanent AF as case group & 21 with sinus rhythm as control group). All patients were evaluated by history, examination, 2D and Doppler echocardiography and 2D-speckle tracking echocardiography (2D-STE). Patients with permanent AF only were evaluated by CHA2DS2-VASc Risk Score calculation, INR & TEE to detect echocardiographic features of high stroke risk.

Results:
The results showed that the global LA strain was highly statistically significantly lower in patients in case group than patients in control group (16.01±7.43 vs. 33.25±11.21, P< 0.001). 9 patients had abnormalities on TEE. The global LA strain was highly statistically significantly lower in patients with high risk features of stroke than patients without these features (6.8 ± 1.1 vs. 18.2 ± 6.5, P