Chest ACCP Career Connection
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

Guest Access | Sign In via User Name/Password
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Free
Right arrow Full Text (PDF) Free
Right arrow Submit a response
Right arrow View responses
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Article Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (1)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Ferrari, E.
Right arrow Articles by Baudouy, M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Ferrari, E.
Right arrow Articles by Baudouy, M.
(Chest. 2005;127:1051-1053.)
© 2005 American College of Chest Physicians

Mobile Thrombi of the Right Heart in Pulmonary Embolism*

Delayed Disappearance After Thrombolytic Treatment

Emile Ferrari, MD; Mustapha Benhamou, MD; Frederic Berthier, MD and Marcel Baudouy, MD

* From the Cardiology Department, Pasteur University Hospital, Nice, France.

Correspondence to: Emile Ferrari, MD, Cardiology Department, Pasteur University Hospital, 30 Ave de la Voie Romaine, Nice 06002, France; e-mail: ferrari.e{at}chu-nice.fr

Background and objective: In patients presenting with pulmonary embolism (PE), echocardiography, in some cases, reveals mobile clots in right heart (RH) cavities. How these clots evolve after treatment, in particular after thrombolytic treatment (TT), is unknown. We sought to determine the outcome of these mobile clots in the RH during TT.

Methods and results: Of a series of 343 patients who had been hospitalized for PE in our department, echocardiography performed on hospital admittance showed a mobile clot in the RH in 18 patients (mobile clot incidence, 5.2%). This subgroup of 18 patients presented with a more severe form of PE than the 325 patients without mobile clots in the RH. In our series, 16 patients were treated with thrombolytic agents. Close echocardiography monitoring showed the outcomes of these mobile clots during and after TT. In 50% of cases, the clot disappeared rapidly in < 2 h after the end of TT. In 50% of the remaining cases, the clot disappeared later, half within 12 h following the completion of TT, and the other half within 24 h. All patients were alive on day 30 without any clinical sequellae.

Conclusion: In these particular forms of PE with mobile clots in the RH, the short time lag required to disperse the clot after TT makes it imperative to delay any decision about new aggressive therapy.

Key Words: echocardiography • pulmonary embolism • thrombolysis




eLetters:

Read all eLetters

Is serial echocardiographic evaluation really necessary in patients with mobile thrombi in the heart
Abel Maldonado-Ortiz. FCCP, et al.
Chest Online, 5 May 2005 [Full text]

HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 2005 by the American College of Chest Physicians.