Echocardiographic diagnosis of a thrombus trapped in a patent foramen ovale. Apropos of a case
Mirode, A.; Tribouilloy, C.; Adam, M.C.; Poulain, H.; Lesbre, J.P.
Archives des Maladies du Coeur et des Vaisseaux 86(7): 1065-1068
1993
ISSN/ISBN: 0003-9683 PMID: 8291943 Document Number: 418189
The authors report the case of a patient presenting with pulmonary embolism in which transthoracic echocardiography showed the presence of an intracardiac thrombus trapped in a patent foramen ovale; this was confirmed at surgery. It is rare to see this type of thrombus (which usually gives rise to paradoxical embolism) by transthoracic echocardiography. Previously, this used to be a postmortem diagnosis but the condition is often suspected nowadays when deep venous thrombosis and/or pulmonary embolism, an unexplained systemic embolism and a right-to-left interatrial shunt, are associated. However, the diagnosis can only be confirmed by the visualisation of the thrombus crossing the interatrial septum.