Identification of a malpositioned atrial pacemaker lead across a patent foramen ovale by transesophageal echocardiography.

Transesophageal echocardiography was used for defining the unusual left atrial location of a malpositioned atrial pacemaker lead. This malpositioning occurred in a 75-year-old woman who had a small atrial septal aneurysm and a patent foramen ovale. Neither the precise location of the pacemaker lead tip nor the course of the lead was apparent by radiographic or transthoracic echocardiographic techniques. This report extends the potential utility of transesophageal echocardiography for the identification of malpositioned atrial pacemaker leads.