2.1 Study population
From January 2021 to April 2022, 100 patients with NVAF who were treated at the First Affiliated Hospital of Wannan Medical College were selected. Among them, there were 68 males and 32 females with an average age of 59.36±7.70 years. They were divided into paroxysmal AF group and persistent AF group according to the duration of AF, with 50 patients in each group. The inclusion criteria were as follows: (1) NVAF; (2) good image quality. And the exclusion criteria included rheumatic heart disease, heart failure (left ventricular ejection fraction, LVEF<50%), cardiac valve repair or replacement, AF radiofrequency ablation, hyperthyroidism, and severe liver and kidney dysfunction. In addition, 50 non-AF patients in sinus rhythm treated in our hospital during the same period were selected as the control group, and the exclusion criteria were consistent with the case group. Among them, there were 34 males and 16 females with an average age of 59.34±7.05 years. The basic clinical information of the above 150 patients was recorded, such as age, gender, body mass index (BMI), body surface area (BSA), smoking and drinking history, some comorbidities, and some laboratory parameters. Ultimately, 150 patients were included in our study (shown in Fig. 1). Since this study did not involve operations such as drugs that may affect the human body and ultrasonography is a non-invasive test, we followed the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki, and the echocardiography and clinically relevant data were collected after informed consent of patients.