Publications (1)0 Total impact
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Article: Left Atrial Spontaneous Echo Contrast in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy with Atrial Fibrillation
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ABSTRACT: Transesophageal echocardiography was performed to assess the incidence of left atrial spontaneous echo contrast in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, who were divided into two groups according to the presence (group 1-A; 10 patients) or absence (group 1-B; 5 patients) of persistent atrial fibrillation. Twelve patients with atrial fibrillation (group 2) served as control. Among these, 5 patients had mitral regurgitation and 8 patients lone atrial fibrillation. Left atrial spontaneous echo contrast was detected in 8 patients (80%) in group 1-A, none in group 1-B, and 3 patients (25%) in group 2. The incidence of echo contrast in group 1-A was significantly higher than that in the other 2 groups. The size of the left atrium was not statistically different among the 3 groups. Accordingly, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with atrial fibrillation seemed to be a specific diseased state to favor the development of the left atrial spontaneous echo contrast. Previous reports suggested that the presence of left atrial spontaneous contrast was considered as a warning sign of left atrial thrombus and would be an indicator of increased risk of embolism. 1)2)3) Three of the 8 patients who had spontaneous echo contrast in group 1-A had a history of systemic embolization. We proposed that patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with atrial fibrillation were in a high risk state of thromboembolism
