[Echocardiographic diagnosis of a thrombus trapped in a patent foramen ovale. Apropos of a case].
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.
Mirode
A
A
Service de cardiologie B, CHU Hôpital Sud, Amiens.
Tribouilloy
C
C
Adam
M C
MC
Poulain
H
H
Lesbre
J P
JP
D000368:Aged; D004452:Echocardiography; D006344:Heart Septal Defects, Atrial / Q000150:complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011655:Pulmonary Embolism / Q000209:etiology*; D013927:Thrombosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery
Diagnostic par échographie d'un thrombus enclavé dans un foramen ovale perméable. A propos d'un cas.