Archives des maladies du coeur et des vaisseaux
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Arch Mal Coeur Vaiss · Jul 1993
Review[Mobile thrombus of the right heart and pulmonary embolism: diagnostic and therapeutic problems. Apropos of 12 cases].
The objectives of this report were to analyse clinical presentation, echocardiographic features and diagnostic and therapeutic problems posed by an unusual form of thrombo-embolic disease: mobile right heart thrombosis. Systematic echocardiography in 170 cases of severe pulmonary embolism identified mobile right thrombi in 12 cases. The auscultatory findings were abnormal in 6 cases, 3 showing signs of tricuspid obstruction. ⋯ The clinical and echocardiographic outcome was good in 2 of these but the third patient died; autopsy revealed thrombi in the right atrium and pulmonary artery. One patient died before any treatment could be given and autopsy showed the thrombus in the pulmonary artery. These results confirm the extreme instability of this type of thrombus and the risk of death due to its embolism.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)