Echocardiographic study of left atrial thrombi in mitral stenosis

Sixty‐nine patients with predominant mitral stenosis were examined by echocardiographic means to detect the presence of left atrial thrombi. Forty‐nine of these patients were in sinus rhythm and twenty in atrial fibrillation. Four percent of patients in the sinus rhythm group and 45% of those in the atrial fibrillation group had left atrial thrombi. The two risk factors identified for left atrial thrombi in mitral stenosis were atrial fibrillation and left atrial enlargement. Copyright © 1993 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.