Assessment of left atrial volume: a focus on echocardiographic methods and clinical implications.

Left atrial enlargement is an important predictor of cardiovascular events such as atrial fibrillation, stroke, heart failure and mortality. A number of methods of left atrial size assessment by echocardiography have been reported, from the simple antero-posterior diameter in the parasternal long axis view to the more complex ellipsoid, area-length and Simpson's method of estimating left atrial volume. These different methods of left atrial size assessment, their clinical implications and some common pitfalls are discussed in this review.