Clinical and Echocardiographic Predictors of Left Atrial Thrombus in Rheumatic Mitral Stenosis

Results: Two hundred and fifty consecutive patients having tight rheumatic mitral stenosis were studied. The mean age of the study population was 26.9 ± 7.5 years. There were more female 128 (51.2%) patients than males 122 (48.8%). Atrial fibrillation (AF) was present less frequently in the study as 33 (13.2%) patients had AF as compared to 217 (86.8%) patients having sinus rhythm. AF was more significantly associated with thrombus formation with 23 (60.5%) patients having thrombus as compared to 15 (39.5%) patients in sinus rhythm having thrombus p < 0.0001. Thrombus in LA was more commonly visualized on TEE as compared to TTE (X 2 =242.3, p=0.0001) and was mostly detected in left atrial appendage (X 2 =211.2, p=0.0001). Spontaneous echo contrast was visualized more frequently on TEE as compared to TTE in both the groups p<0.001.