Clinical characteristics and echocardiographic parameters
The present study included 28 consecutive patients (age, 69.5±9.2 year; 22 (79%) were male patients). The patients were divided into two groups. The SIG consisted of 10 (36%) patients, and the non-SIG consisted of 18 (64%) patients. The baseline characteristics and echocardiographic parameters of the two groups are shown in Table 1. The SIG was associated with a higher proportion of patients with persistent AF compared to the non-SIG.