Clinical correlations in patients with acute myocardial infarction and left ventricular thrombus detected by two-dimensional echocardiography.

Eleven of forty-nine patients with acute myocardial infarction had left ventricular thrombus identified by two-dimensional echocardiography. The patients with thrombi had a greater incidence of transmural infarction, high-grade ventricular ectopy on ambulatory monitoring and lower radionuclide ejection fractions than the patients without thrombi. Most of the patients were receiving full-dose heparin and/or warfarin anticoagulation from the time of admission to the hospital. Thus the thrombi either developed prior to hospital admission or developed during anticoagulation therapy. Two patients with thrombi had peripheral emboli complicating their infarction. One of these patients was undergoing anticoagulation at the time of his embolus.