Clinical Implications and Factors Related to Left Atrial Spontaneous Echo Contrast in Chronic Nonvalvular Atrial Fibrillation
- 1 January 1994
- journal article
- general cardiology
- Published by S. Karger AG in Cardiology
- Vol. 85 (2) , 69-75
- https://doi.org/10.1159/000176648
Abstract
The mechanisms leading to formation of spontaneous echo contrast (SEC), a smoke-like echo on echocardiography, are still controversial. To further explore the clinical implications and factors related to SEC formation, the correlation among echocardiographic variables, hematologic parameters or platelet aggregability, and the occurrence of SEC was studied in 119 patients with chronic nonvalvular atrial fibrillation. There were 75 men and 44 women with a mean age of 65 ± 10 years (range 38-88). Left atrial SEC was detected in 39 patients (33%) by transesophageal echocardiography. Patients with history of systemic embolism were more frequently found to have left atrial SEC and left atrial thrombus by univariate analysis. Multivariate analysis showed that left atrial SEC (pThis publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: