Recognizing blind spots on echocardiography: Incremental benefit of cardiac CT in investigating the source of systemic embolism

Lucas Zellmer; Gopal Punjabi; Gautam R Shroff

doi:10.1016/j.radcr.2023.04.002

Recognizing blind spots on echocardiography: Incremental benefit of cardiac CT in investigating the source of systemic embolism

Radiol Case Rep. 2023 Apr 30;18(7):2376-2377. doi: 10.1016/j.radcr.2023.04.002. eCollection 2023 Jul.

Authors

Lucas Zellmer¹, Gopal Punjabi², Gautam R Shroff³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Internal Medicine, Hennepin Healthcare, 730 S 8th St., Minneapolis, MN 55415, USA.
² Department of Radiology, Hennepin Healthcare, 730 S 8th St., Minneapolis, MN 55415, USA.
³ Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Minnesota, 420 Delaware St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.

Abstract

Transesophageal echocardiography is the gold-standard for evaluating potential central sources of thromboembolism. Despite its routine use and excellent safety profile, limitations exist in the ability to effectively assess the aortic arch and proximal descending aorta with this imaging modality. We herein present a case of a 59 year-old patient presenting with renal and splenic infarcts, without obvious cardioembolic source on echocardiography, who was found to have a large, mobile aortic thrombus on gated cardiac computed tomography.

Keywords: Aorta; Cardioembolism; Echocardiography; Gated cardiac CT.

Publication types

Case Reports