Kurisu Kazuhiro, Hisahara Manabu, Ando Yusuke
Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Kitakyushu Municipal Medical Center, Kitakyushu, Japan.
Ann Thorac Surg. 2008 Sep;86(3):1011-2. doi: 10.1016/j.athoracsur.2008.02.099.
Patients with a left atrial thrombus are considered at high risk of thromboembolism. Surgical treatment is generally recommended. We experienced a case of a patient with a history of cerebral embolism related to chronic atrial fibrillation in whom, unexpectedly, no thrombi were found at thrombectomy. Although echocardiography is a useful method for detection of a thrombus in the left atrium, the possibility of a reverberation artifact should be routinely explored.
