The prevalence of left ventricular thrombus among patients with low ejection fraction by trans-thoracic echocardiography: Left ventricular thrombus in low ejection fraction

Background and objectives: Ejection fraction (EF) is a measurement of heart function that reflects the portion of pumped out blood from the filled left ventricle per each heartbeat. The current study aimed to investigate the prevalence of left ventricular thrombus in patients with EF lower than 35% by using Transthoracic Echocardiography (TTE).

Methods: In this prospective study, 82 cardiac patients underwent TTE procedure in order to assess the presence of left ventricular thrombus (LVT) from January 1st to December 31st 2017 at the Military Cardiac Centre in Sana’a, Yemen.

Results: Out of 82 patients enrolled in this study, the mean age was 49.13 ± 14.8 years and 87.8% were male. The mean of EF was 31.16% and LVT was found in 6.1%. The spontaneous contrast was seen in 25.6% of patients indicating strong relationship with low EF (p < 0.001). Among patients with low EF, ischemic heart disease (IHD) was identified in 50%, hypertension in 30.5%, diabetes mellitus (DM) type 2 in 23.2%, and hyperlipidemia 12.2%. Exactly 80% of LVT were detected in IHD patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCMP) and 80% of detected LVT were apical in site.

Conclusion: Cardiac patients with low ejection fraction developed left ventricular thrombosis, and most of the affected patients were ischemic heart disease with dilated cardiomyopathy. Interestingly, spontaneous contrast was found high significantly in these patients, which may reflect the continuous process of thrombus formation.

Abbreviations:
EF: ejection fraction, ASE: American society of echocardiography, EACVI: European association of cardiovascular imaging, LV: left ventricle, LVEF: left ventricular ejection fraction, HFpEF: heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, HFrEF: heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, MI: myocardial infarction, DCMP: dilated cardiomyopathy, AF: atrial fibrillation, TTE: Transthoracic echocardiography, TEE: trans-esophageal echocardiography, RHD: rheumatic heart disease, HTN: hypertension, DM: diabetes mellitus, CHF: congestive heart failure, JVP: jugular venous pressure, CBC: complete blood count, LFT: liver function tests, RFT: renal function test, LVT: left ventricular thrombus, ECG: electrocardiography, LVT: left ventricular thrombus, EDV: end diastolic volume, ESV: end systolic volume, SPSS: statistical package for the social sciences, IBM: international business machines, SD: standard deviation.