= Atrial reservoir flow component
The \b[atrial reservoir flow component] is <blood> entering the <left atrium> during ventricular <systole> and leaving through the <mitral valve> in the following ventricular <diastole>. This parcel-based category in <atrial flow component analysis> specifies both arrival and departure phases.<Comprehensive left atrial flow component analysis reveals abnormal flow patterns in paroxysmal atrial fibrillation by Sophia Bäck and others>[Methods, Flow Component Analysis; Figure 1]{ref}
Its definition explains the storage interpretation of <atrial reservoir function>. In an idealized closed-outlet interval, the <left atrium>'s volume balance is
$$
\frac{dV_{\rm LA}}{dt}=Q_{\rm PV},\qquad
\Delta V_{\rm LA}=\int_{t_0}^{t_1}Q_{\rm PV}(t)\,dt,
$$
where $Q_{\rm PV}$ is total net inflow from the <pulmonary veins>. A stipulated constant 50 mL/s for 0.3 s increases atrial volume by 15 mL. This balance describes storage during that interval. To label all 15 mL as <atrial reservoir flow component>, a parcel record must additionally show the prescribed subsequent exit.
For example, imagine that the stored 15 mL comprises 12 mL that leaves in the following ventricular <diastole> and 3 mL that remains beyond it. The volume increase is still 15 mL, but the qualifying <atrial reservoir flow component> from those arrivals is 12 mL. Conversely, older <blood> can leave during the same filling phase without having entered during the immediately preceding ventricular <systole>.
A maximum-minus-minimum atrial volume is therefore not an automatic census of this category. Chamber volume measures how much is inside at a given time; <pathlines> identify which represented <blood> is inside and where it goes. The primary study combined moving anatomy from <computed tomography>, <computational fluid dynamics> and numerical <pathlines> rather than directly measuring each parcel's <velocity> with the anatomical scanner.<Comprehensive left atrial flow component analysis reveals abnormal flow patterns in paroxysmal atrial fibrillation by Sophia Bäck and others>[Methods, CT Acquisition and Flow Simulation; Flow Component Analysis]{ref} These complementary observations connect a visible chamber motion to a specific transport question.
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