Abstract
A 76-year-old woman presented with acute lower limb ischemia. Transthoracic echocardiography showed highly mobile structures present in both atria. Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) demonstrated a single fusiform mass straddling the interatrial septum (A) and extending through both the mitral (B) and the tricuspid valve (C, white arrows). Repeat TEE following 6 months of anticoagulation revealed a 3-mm secundum atrial septal defect (D, Online Videos 1A, 1B, 1C, and 1D). Paradoxical embolism is well described in the presence of patent foramen ovale. A possible association with atrial septal defects was recently raised in a retrospective study (1 A. Bannan, R. Shen, F.E. Silvestry and H.C. Herrmann, Characteristics of adult patients with atrial septal defects presenting with paradoxical embolism. Catheter Cardiovasc Interv, 74 (2009), pp. 1066–1069. | View Record in Scopus | | Full Text via CrossRef | Cited By in Scopus (3)1). This report brings confirmatory evidence to support this association. This could have management implications in a subgroup of patients with atrial septal defect. In this case, we prescribed lifelong oral anticoagulation.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | e43 |
| Number of pages | 1 |
| Journal | Journal of the American College of Cardiology |
| Volume | 56 |
| Issue number | 22 |
| Early online date | 16 Nov 2010 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 23 Nov 2010 |
Keywords
- aged
- embolism, paradoxical
- female
- heart septal defects, atrial
- humans