Left atrial floating thrombus in a patient with rheumatic valve disease

Excerpt

A 62-year-old female patient presented with severe chest distress and dyspnea. Her past medical history included rheumatic heart disease and permanent atrial fibrillation. She never experienced hemiparesis or a cerebral embolism. Transthoracic echocardiography showed severe rheumatic mitral stenosis. In addition, both two-dimensional and three-dimensional echocardiography demonstrated a large movable thrombus floating in the left atrium (Fig. 1a, b). The patient underwent emergency cardiac surgery. A large thrombus was removed from the left atrium and her mitral valves were replaced with mechanical prostheses. She recovered well and was discharged 1 week after surgery.

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