Transient left ventricular systolic dysfunction with thrombus and subsequent cardioembolic stroke in short-term overt hypothyroidism.

A 57-year-old woman was referred for cardiomegaly on a chest X-ray taken during thyroxine withdrawal for radioiodine therapy after total thyroidectomy. Baseline transthoracic echocardiography showed left ventricular (LV) wall motion abnormalities and an LV apical mural thrombus. Coronary angiography revealed normal epicardial coronary arteries. Despite anticoagulation treatment, the patient developed abrupt aphasia, agraphia and acalculia. The distal branch of the inferior segmental branch on the left middle cerebral artery was not well visualized on magnetic resonance angiography. Three days later, the patient had made a near full neurological recovery. After 4 weeks of anticoagulation therapy, the apical mural thrombus and wall motion abnormalities resolved. This is the first reported case in the medical literature of transient LV systolic dysfunction with thrombus and subsequent cardioembolic stroke in a patient with short-term overt hypothyroidism.