This case highlights the critical role of echocardiography in the ante-mortem diagnosis of a rare left atrial ball valve thrombus, enabling prompt and life-saving surgical intervention.
Echocardiography may enable timely diagnosis of rare ball-valve thrombi; this single case leaves open need for systematic validation.
Ball valve thrombus" which is a spherical free floating clot in left atrium is an often quoted, but uncommonly encountered complication in patients with severe mitral stenosis of rheumatic origin, who are in atrial fibrillation. We describe the case of a 31-year-old lady with rheumatic heart disease, severe mitral stenosis and moderately severe aortic stenosis who had undergone closed mitral valvotomy 13 years ago. The patient presented with an episode of non-exertional syncope and breathlessness on exertion of 6 months duration and was in normal sinus rhythm. Echocardiography facilitated ante-mortem diagnosis and prompt institution of surgery was life saving.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Balaji et al. (2013) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: