Skip to main content
Netherlands Heart Journal logoLink to Netherlands Heart Journal
. 2026 Mar 4;34(5):197. doi: 10.1007/s12471-026-02031-z

A matter of time: Cardiac aneurysm and recurrent thromboembolic events

Luísa Pinheiro 1,✉, Margarida de Castro 1, Emídio Mata 1, Ana Filipa Cardoso 1, Filipa Almeida 1, Olga Azevedo 1, António Lourenço 1
PMCID: PMC13090455  PMID: 41779346

A 61-year-old man with ischemic heart disease was admitted with acute decompensated heart failure. His disease led to severe left ventricle (LV) systolic dysfunction and the formation of a large basal inferior wall aneurysm with thrombus. Anticoagulation was initiated, and coronary angiography showed severe three-vessel disease. While waiting surgical intervention, the patient had a transient ischemic attack, followed by a left iliac artery embolism, requiring thromboembolectomy. Transthoracic echocardiography revealed a fragmented and mobile intra-aneurysmal thrombus, significantly increasing the embolic risk (Fig. 1 and Supplementary Material, Video S1). Patient underwent successful surgical aneurysm exclusion and coronary artery bypass grafting. This underscores the thromboembolic risk associated with large, mobile LV thrombi, the importance of timely surgical intervention and the impact of LV remodeling in the context of ischemic heart disease [1, 2].

Fig. 1.

Fig. 1

Transthoracic echocardiogram parasternal long-axis view with a posterior tilt showing a fragmented and mobile thrombus (white arrow) within an inferior wall aneurysm

Supplementary Information

Conflict of interest

L. Pinheiro, M. de Castro, E. Mata, A.F. Cardoso, F. Almeida, O. Azevedo and A. Lourenço declare that they have no competing interests.

Consent for publication

The author obtained informed consent from the patient.

Footnotes

The authors Luísa Pinheiro and Margarida de Castro contributed equally to the manuscript.

References

Associated Data

This section collects any data citations, data availability statements, or supplementary materials included in this article.

Supplementary Materials


Articles from Netherlands Heart Journal are provided here courtesy of Springer

RESOURCES