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A Billiard Ball in the Left Atrium
Author(s) -
Carrigan Thomas P.,
Azam Salman,
Sullivan Claire,
Hoit Brian D.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
echocardiography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.404
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1540-8175
pISSN - 0742-2822
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-8175.2011.01670.x
Subject(s) - intracardiac injection , cardiology , medicine , body orifice , atrial fibrillation , mitral valve , left atrium , thrombus , anatomy
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.