Objective: To investigate the relation between intracardiac thrombus and blood coagulability in patients with mitral stenosis.
Design: Prospective study. Cross sectional echocardiography and plasma concentrations of the D-dimer fragment of fibrin were used concurrently to detect intracardiac thrombus in patients with mitral stenosis.
Setting: Department of Medicine, National Cardiovascular Centre, Osaka, Japan.
Patients: 63 patients with mitral stenosis. None of them had been receiving any anticoagulants or antiplatelet agents.
Main outcome measures: Plasma concentrations of D-dimer in patients with a mobile intracardiac thrombus, those in patients with a non-mobile intracardiac thrombus, and those in patients without an intracardiac thrombus.
Results: A mobile intracardiac thrombus was found in 10 patients and a non-mobile thrombus in eight. The remaining 45 patients had no intracardiac thrombi. Plasma concentrations of D-dimer in the 10 patients with a mobile thrombus were all greater than 300 ng/ml (mean 983.3, 95% confidence interval 498.9 to 1467.7 ng/ml) and they were significantly higher than those in the patients with a non-mobile thrombus (226.2, 33.6 to 418.8 ng/ml) and the patients without an intracardiac thrombus (147.2, 110.4 to 184 ng/ml).
Conclusions: A high plasma concentration of D-dimer seemed to reflect a hypercoagulable intracardiac state and may be a helpful indicator of the possible presence of mobile intracardiac thrombus in patients with mitral stenosis.