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Silent and huge left ventricular pseudoaneurysm with left atrial compression: dedicated spatial resolution and geometry by 3-dimensional echocardiography.

Lee YH, Hou CJ, Hung CL, Tsai CH

Mackay Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.

An 83-year-old man with acute inferior wall myocardial infarction underwent successful percutaneous coronary intervention for right coronary artery. Subsequent echocardiography 3 days later showed an incidental huge cardiac chamber compressing left atrium. The chamber was found to have a narrow neck connecting with left ventricle, suggestive of a pseudoaneurysm. Real-time 3-dimensional echocardiography could clearly demonstrate the spatial relationship between pseudoaneurysm and corresponding cardiac chambers, and its precise location and the orifice of pseudoaneurysm. A myocardial break-out point resembling a bird beak with a flap could also be clearly seen and quantified by real-time 3-dimensional echocardiography. This patient underwent surgical resection and the serial follow-up remained uneventful.

Published 4 June 2007 in J Am Soc Echocardiogr, 20(6): 772.e5-9.
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