TITLE:
Rheumatic Giant Left Atrium—An Overview
AUTHORS:
Ramachandran Muthiah
KEYWORDS:
Giant Left Atrium, PML (Posterior Mitral Leaflet) Prolapse, Coconut Atrium, Atrial Fibrillation, Surgical Procedures
JOURNAL NAME:
Case Reports in Clinical Medicine,
Vol.6 No.6,
June
28,
2017
ABSTRACT: Aim: To present the aneurysmal dilatation of left atrium due to rheumatic mitral valve disease and its clinical consequences such as arrhythmic, thromboembolic and compressive manifestations. Introduction: Extreme enlargement of left atrium, usually referred to as giant, gigantic or aneurysmal dilatation is an uncommon finding with a reported incidence of 0.3% in rheumatic heart disease. It is an important clinical risk identifier to predict the outcome of cardiovascular disease. Case reports: Aneurysmal left atrium correlating with the length of pure mitral regurgitation jet in a 18-year-old girl, posterior mitral leaflet prolapse with regurgitation jet swirling around the entire interatrial septum in a 37-year-old male, Giant left atrium in mixed mitral valve disease in a 37-year-old female and a thrombosed giant left atrium resembling as “coconut” in a 50-year-old female were reported. Conclusion: Giant left atrium may be misinterpreted as right-sided pleural effusion, pericardial effusion and mediastinal tumor on X-ray chest and so echocardiographic evaluation is mandatory to exclude the aneurysmal left atrium in such conditions.