Left Atrium by Echocardiography in Clinical Practice: From Conventional Methods to New Echocardiographic Techniques
Figure 6
Left atrial deformation (strain) by speckle tracking. During reservoir function, atrial S increases, reaching a positive peak (systolic peak), at the end of atrial filling, before the mitral valve opening, during LV systole. After mitral valve opening, during conduit phase, atrial S decreases, until reaching a plateau, during diastasis, followed by a second positive peak, during early diastole, before LA contraction. Then there is a negative peak, at the end of atrial contraction.
