[Transesophageal echocardiography in non-rheumatic atrial fibrillation: a moderately sensitive method for assessment of risk of cerebrovascular complications]. / Transösophageale Echokardiographie bei nicht-rheumatischem Vorhofflimmern: eine mässig sensitive Methode zur Abschätzung des Risikos zerebrovaskulärer Komplikationen.

120 consecutive unselected patients with chronic non-rheumatic atrial fibrillation without anticoagulant therapy were examined by transthoracic and transoesophageal echocardiography. Patients with a history of an ischaemic cerebrovascular event (n = 4) had left atrial thrombi, spontaneous contrast or both significantly more often (n = 25, 61%) than patients in the control group (24/79 = 30%). However, when compared with controls, patients with a history of cerebrovascular events were also older, and had hypertension and left ventricular disease (ejection fraction < 45%) more often. Abnormal carotid duplex scans were also very common in this group (71%). Transoesophageal echocardiography is useful for evaluating the risk of cerebrovascular complications in non-rheumatic atrial fibrillation. However, the method is quite insensitive (61%) and therefore insufficient as the sole parameter for deciding the need for anticoagulation. It is likely that cerebrovascular complications in these polymorbid patients are partially caused by other factors than embolism from the left atrium.