Embolic events caused by aortic thrombi: an underestimated entity?

Stroke and other thromboembolic events are mainly caused by emboli from heart, aorta and other arteries. In this paper we describe a group of 5 middle-aged patients suffering from emboli caused by large thrombi in the aorta. Since the development of giant thrombi under high flow conditions in the aorta is a pathophysiological process which is not well understood, a model of flow distribution by numerically simulating the Navier-Stokes equation for an incompressible fluid was generated. This model simulated how such thrombi may develop in the aorta. We hypothesize that large thrombi issuing from the aortic vessel wall represent a underestimated entity in middleaged persons and are probably overlooked as the cause of stroke or other embolic events in some cases.