Khurram Shahzad, Sajjad Ahmad, Abdul Rehman Abid, Nadeem Hayat Mallick.
Frequency of left ventricular thrombus formation in patients with acute ST elevation myocardial infarction.
J Cardiovascular Dis Jan ;9(1):18-23.

Objectives: To determine the frequency of Left Ventricle thrombus in patients with acute ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Materials and Methods: This cross sectional survey was conducted at the Cardiology Department Punjab Institute of Cardiology, Lahore from February to August 2010. Five hundred patients having STEMI were enrolled from emergency department, Punjab Institute of Cardiology, Lahore after fulfilling the inclusion criteria transthoracic echocardiography was performed in all the patients within 72 hours of acute MI to seek for the presence of left ventricular thrombus and the other variables (wall motion abnormalities, LV ejection fraction) by a single consultant cardiologist. Results: Five hundred patients of STEMI underwent echocardiography after fulfilling the inclusion criteria. The mean age of the study population was 57±11.3 years. There were 406 (81.2%) male patients and 94 (18.8%) female patients. Thrombolytic therapy was administered to 372(74.4%) patients. Left ventricular mural thrombus (LVMT) was present in 68 (13.6%) patients with in 72 hours of the acute MI. LVMT was more frequent in patients having ejection fraction ≤30% 60(12%) . Conclusion: LVMT is a fatal complication in the clinical setting of acute STEMI especially after anterior wall MI with increased risk of systemic embolization. Patients with acute MI should be administered thrombolytic therapy as soon as possible and the proper measures should be taken to control the risk factors so that the incidence of LVMT and its complications can be minimized. Key Words: Myocardial infarction, Left ventricular thrombus, Ejection fraction, Segmental Wall Motion Abnormalities.

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