Presence of Residual Cardiac Thrombus Predicts Poor Outcome in Cardioembolic Stroke After Reperfusion Therapy.

Background: In patients with acute cardiogenic cerebral embolism, a residual thrombus may still be present in the cardiac cavity even after reperfusion therapy. We aimed to investigate the occurrence of a residual cardiac thrombus in cardioembolic stroke after reperfusion therapy and analyze its impact on clinical outcome.
Methods and Results: We enrolled patients with cardioembolic stroke from our prospectively collected database who underwent 2-phase cardiac computed tomography within 7 days after reperfusion therapy. Residual cardiac thrombus was defined as a filling defect on both early- and late-phase images, whereas circulatory stasis was defined as a filling defect only on the early-phase images in the left atrial appendage. The primary outcome was a poor clinical outcome (modified Rankin Scale score, 3-6) at 90 days. The secondary outcome was a composite end point event (cardiovascular death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke) at 90 days. A total of 303 patients were included, of whom 94 (31.0%) had a residual cardiac thrombus. Binary logistic regression analysis showed that the presence of a residual cardiac thrombus was associated with a poor clinical outcome (odds ratio, 1.951 [95% CI, 1.027-3.707]; P =0.041) but not circulatory stasis in the left atrial appendage (odds ratio, 1.096 [95% CI, 0.542-2.217]; P =0.798). Furthermore, there was no correlation between a residual cardiac thrombus and the composite end point event (30.0% versus 31.1%; P =1.000).
Conclusions: Residual cardiac thrombus occurs in approximately one-third of patients with cardioembolic stroke after reperfusion therapy and is often indicative of a poor clinical outcome.