Left atrial appendage thrombus

Last revised by Yahya Baba on 5 Jul 2023

Citation, DOI, disclosures and article data

Citation:

Weerakkody Y, Baba Y, Elfeky M, Left atrial appendage thrombus. Reference article, Radiopaedia.org (Accessed on 11 May 2024) https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-163481

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-163481

Permalink:

https://radiopaedia.org/articles/163481

rID:

163481

Article created:

26 Feb 2023, Yuranga Weerakkody ◉

Disclosures:

At the time the article was created Yuranga Weerakkody had no financial relationships to ineligible companies to disclose.

View Yuranga Weerakkody's current disclosures

Last revised:

5 Jul 2023, Yahya Baba ◉

Disclosures:

At the time the article was last revised Yahya Baba had no financial relationships to ineligible companies to disclose.

View Yahya Baba's current disclosures

Revisions:

3 times, by 3 contributors - see full revision history and disclosures

Tags:

cases

Synonyms:

Left atrial appendage (LAA) thrombus
Left atrial appendage thrombi
LAA thrombus

Left atrial appendage thrombus is a site of intra-cardiac thrombus and refers to the presence of thrombus within the left atrial appendage.

The left atrial appendage is considered the main location of thrombus formation, predominantly in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation.

Radiographic features

Cardiac CT

Maybe reasonably specific but not as much sensitive⁷.

Thrombus detection by cardiac CT relies on filling defects within the left atrial appendage. However, low blood flow velocity may also present as filling defects, and differentiation between thrombi from low blood flow/stasis during early imaging method may be difficult due to the interval between contrast arrival and left atrial appendage image capture being too short. Some authors have suggested a delayed imaging (around 6 minutes) phase to help to differentiate thrombi and low/slow flow^2,5.