Atrial fibrillation, often abbreviated as AFib, is a heart rhythm disorder in which the atria, the upper chambers of the heart, contract in a rapid, disorganized fashion rather than beating in a normal, coordinated pattern. On echocardiography, sonographers may notice irregularly timed valve openings, variable Doppler flow patterns, and loss of the normal A-wave in mitral inflow Doppler tracings. Echocardiography also helps identify complications of atrial fibrillation, such as blood clots in the left atrial appendage and enlargement of the left atrium. Understanding atrial fibrillation is important for sonographers because it is extremely common, affecting millions of Americans, and its presence changes how certain echocardiographic measurements are performed and interpreted.
Sonography Term