Transience of left ventricular thrombosis.

A left ventricular mural thrombus with a mobile appendix of 0.5 x 0.5 x 3 cm was shown by two dimensional echocardiography in a 31 year old man who had dilated congestive myocardial disease. Serial echocardiograms showed formation of the thrombus within three weeks and uncomplicated disappearance of the mobile clot within less than two days. Heparin and phenprocoumon were given in doses generally not accepted to affect left ventricular thrombosis adequately. Such transience of left ventricular thrombosis may be worth considering when deciding whether to treat patients with thrombi accidentally demonstrated by echocardiography; it also might explain some of the many negative examinations in the echocardiographic screening of patients with embolism.