A Ball Valve Thrombus in a Young Obese Male With Hyperlipidemia

Abstract

A ball valve thrombus is a common entity in rheumatic mitral stenosis where a large clot forms in the left atrial appendage, the clot detaches from the left atrial appendage, swirls in the left atrium in a clockwise manner, obstructs the mitral inflow producing cyclic acute pulmonary edema, and likely causes left ventricular outflow tract obstruction producing transient syncope or embolism to the brain producing dense hemiplegia. Besides rheumatic mitral stenosis, ball valve thrombus has been described in post-mitral valve replacement patients and restrictive cardiomyopathy. Left atrial myxoma sometimes rocks across the mitral valve producing the effect of a ball valve thrombus. Right atrial ball valve thrombus has been described after prolonged parenteral nutrition through a central line in intensive care units and in carcinoma patients with cardiac metastasis. We report an extremely rare case of a ball valve thrombus in an obese individual where dyslipidemia was the sole triggering factor for the formation of a ball valve thrombus in the left atrium.