Imaging of intracardiac thrombus

Intracardiac thrombus is an important clinical condition because of its potential complications. Detection of ventricular thrombi is generally performed by transthoracic echocardiography while atrial thrombi are generally evaluated by transesophageal echocardiography. Contrast-enhanced computerized tomography is more sensitive for detecting ventricular and atrial thrombi than transthoracic echocardiography, but the technique has been demonstrated to be inferior to transesophageal echocardiography for displaying atrial thrombi. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging provides superior specificity for evaluation of tissue characteristics and helps to differentiate thrombi from other masses.