Estimating left atrial enlargement parameters from the electrocardiogram using wavelets

Background: The aim of this article was to examine the utility of using the P wave of the electrocardiogram to indicate left atrial enlargement measures determined from the echocardiogram and cardiac magnetic resonance.

Method: Wavelet-based features extracted from the beat-averaged P wave were correlated to the left atrial diameter, left atrial area, and left atrial volume index measures from echocardiogram and cardiac magnetic resonance.

Results: Significant correlations were found between several of the wavelet features and the left atrial enlargement size measures (r > 0.5, P < .01). Left atrial diameter and left atrial area correlated best to the derived Z lead, and left atrial volume index correlated best to the derived X lead.

Conclusions: The good correlations illustrate that it is feasible to estimate the size of the left atrium from the P wave using wavelet techniques.