Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 27, 2025

Echocardiographic Evaluation of Atrial Communications before Transcatheter Closure
Published on: February 8, 2022
Left atrial diverticulum-An unexpected finding in routine transesophageal echocardiography
Matthias Schneider1, Daniel A Morris1, Elisabeth Pieske-Kraigher1
1Department of Internal Medicine and Cardiology, Charité University Medicine (Campus Virchow Klinikum), Berlin, 13353, Germany.
Abstract:
We report a 55-year-old male patient with lone paroxysmal atrial fibrillation who underwent routine transesophageal echocardiography (TOE) at our institution. In a mid-esophageal 125° three-chamber angulation, a distinct thinning of the left atrial (LA) wall was observed, forming a 7 × 4 mm canal with only a small membrane separating the LA from the pericardial space. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging diagnosed a small LA diverticulum. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first manuscript describing detection of a small LA diverticulum via TOE.
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