• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.364-377
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• 2022

An anatomical understanding of the atrial myocardium is crucial for surgeons and interventionists who treat atrial arrhythmias. We reviewed the anatomy of the inter-nodal and intra-atrial conduction systems. The anterior inter-nodal route (#1) arises from the sinus node and runs through the ventral wall of the atrial chambers. The major branch of route #1 approaches the atrioventricular node from the anterior aspect. Other branches of route #1 are Bachmann's bundle and a vestibular branch around the tricuspid valve. The middle inter-nodal route (#2) begins with a broad span of fibers at the sinus venarum and extends to the superior limbus of the oval fossa. The major branch of route #2 joins with the branch of route #1 at the anterior part of the atrioventricular node. The posterior inter-nodal route (#3) is at the terminal crest and gives rise to many branches at the pectinate muscles of the right atrium and then approaches the posterior atrioventricular node after joining with the vestibular branch of route #1. The branches of the left part of Bachmann's bundle and the branches of the second inter-nodal route form a thin myocardial network at the posterior wall of the left atrium. These anatomical structures could be categorized into major routes and side branches. There are 9 or more anatomical circles in the atrial chambers that could be structural sites for macro re-entry. The implications of normal and abnormal structures of the myocardium for the pathogenesis and treatment of atrial arrhythmias are discussed.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.32 no.10
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• pp.903-909
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• 1999

Background: The current study was undertaken to investigate the results of a modification in the conventional Maze III Procedure devised by the authors. The aim of the technical modification was in improving the left atrial contractility. Material and Method: Between July 1997 and December 1998, 34 patients with chronic atrial fibrillation for more than 1 year duration underwent a modified Maze III procedure. The assessment of the left atrial function was made by various echocardiographic measurements and SA nodal recovery was evaluated by HRV Holter monitoring. Result: All 34 patients were in sinus rhythm. On echocardiography, right atrial contraction was detected in 32 patients(94.1%) and left atrial contraction in 33 patients(97.1%). The echocardiographic A wave at 1, 6, and 12 months or more were 50.5$\pm$31.5, 62.1$\pm$25.1, 66$\pm$20.6 cm/sec, respectively, and the E wave measurements at the same time points were 152$\pm$31.1, 134.4$\pm$35.2, 133$\pm$27.5 cm/sec. The corresponding A/E ratios were 0.32$\pm$0.13, 0.48$\pm$0.18, 0.5$\pm$0.15, showing a rising trend. Treadmill evaluation at 6 months showed a mean 82% increase in heart rate after excising, and the SDNN and SDANN upon HRV Holter at 1 and 3 months postoperatively were 65.3$\pm$28.1/87.8$\pm$27.2 ms, and 60.0$\pm$24.1/83.4$\pm$25.7 ms, respectively, showing a predoinant autonomic recovery in the parasympathetic system(PSDNN = 0.01, PSDANN =0.015). Conclusion: The results of our data suggest that the current modification in the conventional Maze III Procedure was efective in enhancing the postoperative left atrial contractility.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.1047-1054
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• 2012

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia encountered in clinical practice, and its risk increases with age. Conventionally, the way of detecting AF was the time·frequency domain analysis of RR variability. However, the detection of ECG signal is difficult because of the low amplitude of the P wave and the corruption by the noise. Also, the time·frequency domain analysis of RR variability has disadvantage to get the details of irregular RR interval rhythm. In this study, we describe an atrial fibrillation pattern analysis based on symbolization and information entropy. We transformed RR interval data into symbolic sequence through differential partition, analyzed RR interval pattern, quantified the complexity through Shannon entropy and detected atrial fibrillation. The detection algorithm was tested using the threshold between 10ms and 100ms on two databases, namely the MIT-BIH Atrial Fibrillation Database.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.171-176
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• 2017

Background: In elderly patients who have atrial fibrillation (AF), surgical ablation of the arrhythmia during cardiac surgery may be challenging. Despite the reported advantages of ablating AF with the Cox maze procedure (CMP), the addition of the CMP may complicate other cardiac operations. We evaluated the effect of the CMP in elderly patients concurrent with other cardiac operations. Methods: From October 2007 to December 2015, we enrolled 27 patients aged >70 years who had AF and who underwent the CMP concurrently with other cardiac operations. The mean preoperative additive European System for Cardiac Operative Risk Evaluation score was $8{\pm}11$ (high risk). Results: Only 1 hospital death occurred (4%). The Kaplan-Meier method showed a high 5-year cumulative survival rate (92%). At mean follow‐up of 51 months, 23 patients (89%) had sinus rhythm conversion. The postoperative left atrial dimensions did not significantly differ between the 8 patients who had reduction plasty for giant left atrium ($53.4{\pm}7.5cm$) and the 19 patients who did not have reduction plasty ($48.7{\pm}5.7cm$). Conclusion: In patients aged >70 years, concurrent CMP may be associated with a high rate of sinus rhythm conversion without increased surgical risk, despite the added complexity of the main cardiac procedure.

• Proceedings of the KOSOMBE Conference
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• v.1994 no.12
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• pp.88-91
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• 1994

It is well known that multipoint and computerized intraoperative mapping systems improve the results of surgery for Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome and show tremendous potential for opening an entirely new era of surgical intervention for the more common and lethal types of supraventricular tachyarrhythmias such as atrial flutter and atrial fibrillation. In addition, the ability to map and ablate the sometimes fleeting automatic atrial tachycardia is greatly enhanced by computerized mapping systems. In this study, we have developed 64 channel computerized data analysis system using microcomputer (Macintosh IIx) for basic research of electrophysiology and electrical propagation. The bipolar electrogram information is acquired from 64 cardiac sites simultaneously at a sampling rate of 1ksamples/sec with continuous and total data storage of up to 30 seconds. When the reference electrogram is selected and reference point is picked up, delay time from the reference point in displayed on two dimensional diagram of the heart. System design permits easy expansion to almost 256 simultaneous sites, This system is expected to enable us to study pathophysiology of cardiac arrhythmia and to improve the results of diagnosis and surgical treatment for cardiac arrhythmia.

• International Journal of Arrhythmia
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• 제18권2호
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• pp.66-76
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• 2017

Background and Objectives: Although an anterior linear ablation is an effective lesion set in radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA) for longstanding persistent atrial fibrillation (L-PeAF), its durability for bidirectional block (BDB) is only about 60% at repeat procedure. We hypothesized that changes in electrocardiogram (ECG) may predict an anterior line block state and the clinical outcome of L-PeAF ablation. Subjects and Methods: We studied 304 L-PeAF patients (77% male, $60{\pm}10yrs$), who consistently underwent RFCA Dallas lesion set (circumferential pulmonary vein isolation, posterior box lesion, and anterior line) protocol with subsequent comparison of pre-procedural and post-procedural P wave axes, and one year follow-up (n=205) sinus rhythm (SR) ECGs. Results: 1. P wave axis shifted inferiorly at immediate post-procedure (p<0.001), and was independently correlated with BDB of anterior line (${\ss}=10.4$, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.79-17.94, p=0.008). 2. The degree of post-procedural inferior shift of P wave axis did not reflect clinical recurrence within one-year (n=205, p=0.923), potentially due to conduction recovery of an anterior line. However, among 160 patients without clinical recurrence within one-year, P wave axis at one-year ECG was independently associated with very late recurrence of AF after one-year (n=160, hazard ratio [HR] 0.98; 95% CI 0.97-0.99, p=0.001), during $45.6{\pm}16.7$ months of follow-up. 3. Among 22 patients who underwent repeat procedures, P wave axis shift was more significant in patients with maintained BDB of an anterior line than in those without (p=0.015). Conclusion: An inferior shift of P wave axis reflects the achievement and the maintenance of an anterior line BDB, and is associated with better long-term clinical outcome after catheter ablation for L-PeAF based on Dallas lesion set.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.367-372
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• 2014

Background: We compared the mid-term results of the Cox maze IV procedure using argon-based cryoablation with a procedure using $N_2O$-based cryoablation. Methods: From May 2006 to June 2012, 138 patients (mean age, $58.2{\pm}11.0$ years) underwent the Cox maze IV procedure. Eighty-five patients underwent the maze procedure using an $N_2O$-based cryoprobe (group N), and 53 patients underwent the maze procedure using an argon-based cryoprobe (group A). Bipolar radiofrequency ablation was concomitantly used in 131 patients. The presence of atrial fibrillation immediately, 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years after surgery was compared. Results: Early mortality occurred in 6 patients (4.3%). There were no differences in early mortality or postoperative complications between the two groups. Nineteen of 115 patients (16.5%) remained in atrial fibrillation at postoperative 12 months (14 of 80 patients (17.5%) in group N and 5 of 35 patients (14.3%) in group A, p=0.669). There were no differences in the number of patients who remained in atrial fibrillation at any of the time periods except in the immediate postoperative period. A multivariable analysis revealed that the energy source of cryoablation was not associated with the presence of atrial fibrillation at 1 year (p=0.862) and that a fine F wave (<0.1 mV) was the only risk factor predicting the presence of atrial fibrillation at 1 year (p<0.001, odds ratio=20.287). Conclusion: The Cox maze IV procedure using an argon-based cryoprobe was safe and effective compared with the maze procedure using an $N_2O$-based cryoprobe in terms of operative outcomes and the restoration of sinus rhythm for up to 2 years after surgery.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.485-494
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• 2008

Purpose: In this study, relationships between symptom experience and quality of life in a cross-sectional sample of patients with Atrial Fibrillation (AF) were investigated. Methods: This descriptive study involved a convenience sample of AF patients from S university hospital, C city. One hundred and two AF patients completed psychometric validated measures of AF related symptoms and quality of life. Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation coefficients with SPSS WIN 14.0 were used for data analysis. Results: Of 16 atrial arrhythmia-related symptoms, the patients reported 'tiredness' as the most frequent and 'shortness of breath' as the most severe. The level of overall quality of life for patients with AF was 53.92. There were significant differences in symptom frequency according to religion, New York Heart Association (NYHA) classification and left ventricular ejection fraction ; symptom severity according to monthly income and stroke ; quality of life according to age, job, alcohol intake, NYHA class and stroke. Quality of life for these patients was positively correlated with symptom frequency and symptom severity. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that patients with more frequent and severe symptoms perceive poorer quality of life than patients with less frequent and less severe symptoms. Symptom experience should be assessed early to improve quality of life for patients.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.106-111
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• 1987

Twenty eight patients with atrial septal defect operated on from May, 1983, to July, 1986 at the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Chungnam National University Hospital, were analyzed retrospectively. Among the 28 patients of atrial septal defect, 8 were male and 20 were female. Their ages ranged from 4.6 years to 52.5 years old with the mean of 15.3 years. The main clinical symptoms on admission were exertional dyspnea [82%], frequent respiratory infection [75%], palpitation [54%] and easy fatigability [25%]. Electrocardiographic findings were as follows: Regular sinus rhythm [100%], RVH [54%], RBBB [25%] and first degree of A-V block [4%]. Hemodynamic studies were performed in all cases and mean pulmonary systolic arterial pressure was 34.1*11.8mmHg. and mean Qp/Qs was 2.6*0.9. All 28 patients were operated under direct vision using extracorporeal circulation. 23 cases were secundum type defect and a single hole was found in 22 cases. The associated cardiovascular anomalies were found in 11 patients: ventricular septal defect in 3, patent ductus arteriosus in 1, partial anomalous pulmonary venous drainage in 2, mitral regurgitation in 2, tricuspid regurgitation in 1, anomalous left atrial septation in 1 and valvular pulmonary stenosis in 1. The defect closed directly in 22 cases and with patches in 6 cases. Postoperative complications were wound infection, arrhythmia bleeding, intracardiac patch detachment, pneumothorax and urethral injury. But there was no operative mortality.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.37 no.7
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• pp.609-612
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• 2004

Even though the Cox-Maze III procedure is the gold standard in the therapy for atrial fibrillation (AF) and its outcome is excellent, the complexity of the operation, longer cardiopulmonary bypass time and the risk of bleeding have tended to dissuade cardiac surgeons from its application. The recent data of the pathogenesis of AF and the development of alternative energy sources have facilitated the development of the modified Cox-Maze procedure rapidly. We reported that atrial fibrillation was conversed to sinus rhythm by the epicardial microwave ablation without cardiopulmonary bypass and the normal sinus rhythm was observed during 33 months of follow-up period.