REVIEW article
Front. Stroke
Sec. Population Health and Risk Factors of Stroke
This article is part of the Research TopicReviews in Preventative Health for Stroke and Education to Stroke PreventionView all 15 articles
The correlation between left atrial appendage morphology and thromboembolic risk in atrial fibrillation
Provisionally accepted
- 1School of Medicine, Shaoxing University, Shaoxing, China
- 2The First Affiliated Hospital of Shaoxing University, shaoxing, China
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Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia and a major cause of ischemic stroke. Between 91% and 100% of cardiogenic thrombi are in the left atrial appendage (LAA), and the morphology of the LAA is closely associated with the formation of LAA thrombus (LAAT). This review provides a detailed discussion of the anatomy of the LAA, the epidemiology, and the diagnosis of LAAT. It focuses on analyzing the role of LAA morphology in blood stasis, morphological abnormality, and hypercoagulable states. Accurate evaluation of the morphology of the LAA can assist with risk stratification in patients with AF. The commonly used LAA morphological evaluation indicators must be more comprehensive and objective. Recently, new imaging protocols allow for LA morphological remodeling and fibrosis assessment, which has been demonstrated to correlate with assessing the individual's risks of thromboembolic events and practical imaging of patients with LAAT.
Keywords: Atrial Fibrillation, Left atrial appendage, Left atrial appendage thrombus, left atrial appendage morphology, Hemodynamics
Received: 28 Apr 2025; Accepted: 17 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Wang and Xu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Buyun Xu, xbyzju@126.com
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