[Spontaneous microcavitations in the right cardiac chambers. Microcavitations in the right sections]

Spontaneous echocardiographic contrast has been occasionally detected in the left ventricle of patients with mitral valve prosthesis. Only one case has been so far described in which spontaneous microbubbles have been detected in the right ventricle. We report the clinical and echocardiographic findings of five patients in whom spontaneous echocardiographic contrast was detected in right cardiac chambers: one patient had pulmonary embolism, three patients had mitral valve disease and tricuspid regurgitation, one patient had a congestive cardiomyopathy. These microbubbles can be produced by gas development due to lateral pressure drop secondary to tricuspid regurgitation or to gas absorbed from the intestine, that reach the heart through shunts between the portal and the systemic veins.