Recurring free-floating thrombus in the left atrium in a patient with mitral prosthesis.

A case of recurrent left atrial free-floating thrombus in a patient with mitral prosthesis and multiple emboli is described. Transthoracic echocardiography failed to show the first ball thrombus, whereas transesophageal echocardiography proved highly useful both in diagnosis and in indicating the left atrial appendage as the source of the thrombi.

[Chronic total occlusion of the left main coronary artery]. / Oclusión crónica total del tronco común de la coronaria izquierda.

Total chronic occlusion of the left main coronary artery is a rare angiographic finding in a catheterization laboratory. After reviewing the coronary angiographies performed in our laboratory between 1986 to 1995, we found a prevalence of 0.04%. These patients presented unspecific symptoms similar to other kinds of coronary artery disease. In all cases, the right coronary artery was dominant with extensive collateral circulation to the left coronary artery. Ventricular function was normal in 50% of the cases. Probably, in these unusual cases, the best therapeutic approach is surgical revascularization.