Echocardiographic diagnosis of right atrial thromboembolism

In a patient with congestive cardiomyopathy who died suddenly from right ventricular thromboembolism, antemortem two-dimensional echocardiography demonstrated a right atrial mass with acoustic characteristics suggestive of a thromboembolus. These characteristics included an elongated structure that assumed multiple dynamic forms and lack of an intracardiac attachment point. Because of the high likelihood of right ventricular impaction of a cardiac embolus, an aggressive therapeutic approach to such lesions is advised.