Free-floating left atrial ball thrombus is an extremely rare and serious disorder that usually occurs in the setting of a large, dilated left atrium with stagnant flow, commonly the result of severe rheumatic mitral stenosis and accompanying atrial fibrillation. In the present case, we report a free-floating left atrial ball thrombus developed in an 11-year-old child with idiopathic restrictive cardiomyopathy during sinus rhythm and manifested as peripheral arterial embolic event. To our knowledge, this is the first case of free-floating left atrial ball thrombus developed in a patient with restrictive cardiomyopathy. Furthermore, this also is the first case of free-floating left atrial ball thrombus developed in a patient during sinus rhythm. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
C1 Inonu Univ, Fac Med, Dept Cardiol, Malatya, Turkey.
Turkiye Yuksek Ihtisas Hosp, Dept Cardiol, Ankara, Turkey.
Turkiye Yuksek Ihtisas Hosp, Dept Cardiovasc Surg, Ankara, Turkey.