title: A billiard ball in the left atrium.
abstract: An 84-year-old woman with a history of severe systolic heart failure, a mechanical mitral valve, and atrial fibrillation presented to the hospital with syncope and is found to have a free-floating intracardiac mass on transthoracic echocardiogram that was absent 5 months earlier. Real time three-dimensional (3D) transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) images reveal a billiard-ball-looking mass thought to be a large left atrial thrombus causing syncope by transiently obstructing the mitral valve orifice. Real time 3D TEE offers several potential advantages for the evaluation of intracardiac masses.
authors.affiliation: University Hospitals, Case Medical Center Harrington Heart and Vascular Institute, Cleveland, OH 44106-5038, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Carrigan
authors.forename: Salman
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Azam
authors.forename: Claire
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sullivan
authors.forename: Brian D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Hoit
mesh_terms: D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004452:Echocardiography; D005260:Female; D006325:Heart Atria / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D013575:Syncope / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000209:etiology*; D013927:Thrombosis / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*