Left Ventricular Thrombi and Cerebral Embolism

Cerebral embolism of cardiac origin is responsible for close to 15 percent of all cases of acute ischemic stroke — far fewer than the number attributed to thrombotic complications of cerebrovascular disease but still the source of catastrophic stroke in more than 75,000 North Americans per year.1 The destructive thrombi of cerebral embolism derive from a diverse array of cardiac diseases, about half of which involve atrial fibrillation and half, valvular heart disease or left ventricular mural thrombi.1 , 2 The cause of 60 percent of the emboli of left ventricular origin is acute myocardial infarction; the rest involve chronic ventricular dysfunction . . .