Left Atrial Thrombus Detection with Multiplane Transesophageal Echocardiography

Left Atrial Thrombus Detection with Multiplane Transesophageal Echocardiography:
An Echocardiographic Study with Surgical Verification
Vedat Koca MD, Tahsin Bozat MD, Vakur Akkaya MD, Cetin Sarikamis MD, Tamer Turk MD,
Hakan Vural MD, Ayhan Ozdemir MD

A total of 262 consecutive patients (103 men, 159 women; mean age 42.2 ą 13.1 years) surgically treated for rheumatic mitral valvular disease between January 1994 and October 1997 were examined with multiplane transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) less than three days before surgery to establish the sensitivity of multiplane TEE in diagnosing left atrial thrombus (LAT). The presence or absence of LAT was confirmed at surgery by direct inspection of the left atrium. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value and diagnostic accuracy for multiplane TEE were 97, 100, 100, 99.6 and 99.6%, respectively. In conclusion, multiplane TEE is highly sensitive for the detection of LAT.