Association between acute myocardial infarction and death in 386 patients with a thrombus straddling a patent foramen ovale.

BACKGORUND: Right atrial thrombi are rarely found straddling a patent foramen ovale (PFO). A thrombus straddling a PFO (TSPFO), also known as impending paradoxical embolism, is a medical emergency associated with up to 11.5% risk of death within 24 h of being diagnosed. We hypothesized that acute myocardial infarction (MI) and ischemic stroke (IS) diagnosed upon the admission of patients with TSPFO are associated with increased risk of death. We also investigated if specific acute therapies are associated with reduced in-hospital mortality. METHODS: We performed a systematic search including case reports and series of adult patients with TSPFO published from 1950 to October 30, 2020. We gathered patient-level data and we applied a logistic regression model to evaluate on the risk of in-hospital death. We performed time-trends and several sensitivity analyses. RESULTS: We included 386 cases with a TSPFO comprised in 359 publications. The median age was 61 years and 51.2% were females. Fifty (13.0%) patients died during hospital stay, 82 (21.2%) had an acute IS, and 18 (4.6%) had an acute MI diagnosed upon admission. Acute MI (OR 7.83, 95%CI 2.70-22.7; P < 0.0001), but not IS, was associated with increased risk of death. Right atrial thrombectomy was associated with a 65% decreased in-hospital mortality (OR 0.35, 95%CI 0.18-0.70, P = 0.003). Results remained unchanged on sensitivity analyses. CONCLUSION: In this systematic review of 386 cases of TSPFO, acute MI but not IS was associated with 8-fold increased risk of death, while surgical thrombectomy was associated with a significant 65% reduction of in-hospital mortality.