Due to copyright issues, an electronic copy of the thesis must be ordered from the faculty. For the faculty to have time to process the order, the order must be received by the faculty at the latest 2 days before the public defence. Orders received later than 2 days before the defence will not be processed. After the public defence, please address any inquiries regarding the thesis to the candidate.
Trial Lecture – time and place
See Trial Lecture.
Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Professor of Cardiology Gunnar Gisalson, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
- Second opponent: Professor dr. med. Eva Gerdts, University of Bergen, Norway
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Professor Torgeir Bruun Wyller, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Professor II Kristine Sahlberg, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Professor Arnljot Tveit, University of Oslo
Summary
This doctoral thesis investigates echocardiographic left atrial volumetric indices, their relation to antecedent blood pressure and to incident atrial fibrillation in the Akershus Cardiac Examination (ACE) 1950 Study. ACE 1950 is a cardiovascular cohort study of 3706 individuals, all born in 1950. Baseline examinations of the study were performed at Bærum Hospital and Akershus University Hospital in 2012-2015. The study was linked to a cardiovascular screening survey conducted in the 1990s providing data on antecedent blood pressure. Follow-up data were collected from national health registries.
Left atrial volumetric indices was measured with echocardiography and a healthy group of 832 individuals was defined to assess normal values. The left atrial volume had an upper normal limit of 38 ml/m2, higher than the current recommended cut-off at 34 ml/m2. There were also significant sex differences, in contrast to most previous studies of normal values. In 2591 individuals with available data on antecedent blood pressure, an association between systolic blood pressure in the early forties and left atrial volume in the mid-sixties was found. After median follow-up of 6 years, atrial fibrillation occurred in 123 individuals. Left atrial volumetric indices were associated with incident atrial fibrillation, independently of a validated risk score. Adding blood biomarkers to echocardiography seemed to have incremental value, but the novel biomarker GDF-15 showed no predictive value.
Additional information
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