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.