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Embolism from the heart or the thoracic aorta often leads to clinically significant morbidity and mortality due to transient ischemic attack, stroke or occlusion of peripheral arteries. Transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography are the key diagnostic modalities for evaluation, diagnosis, and management of stroke, systemic and pulmonary embolism. This document provides comprehensive American Society of Echocardiography guidelines on the use of echocardiography for evaluation of cardiac sources of embolism. It describes general mechanisms of stroke and systemic embolism; the specific role of cardiac and aortic sources in stroke, and systemic and pulmonary embolism; the role of echocardiography in evaluation, diagnosis, and management of cardiac and aortic sources of emboli including the incremental value of contrast and 3D echocardiography; and a brief description of alternative imaging techniques and their role in the evaluation of cardiac sources of emboli. Specific guidelines are provided for each category of embolic sources including the left atrium and left atrial appendage, left ventricle, heart valves, cardiac tumors, and thoracic aorta. In addition, there are recommendation regarding pulmonary embolism, and embolism related to cardiovascular surgery and percutaneous procedures. The guidelines also include a dedicated section on cardiac sources of embolism in pediatric populations., (Copyright © 2016 American Society of Echocardiography. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Libman-Sacks endocarditis, characterized by Libman-Sacks vegetations, is common in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and is commonly complicated with embolic cerebrovascular disease. Thus, accurate detection of Libman-Sacks vegetations may lead to early therapy and prevention of their associated complications. Although two-dimensional (2D) transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) has high diagnostic value for detection of Libman-Sacks vegetations, three-dimensional (3D) TEE may allow improved detection, characterization, and clinical correlations of Libman-Sacks vegetations., Methods: Twenty-nine patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (27 women; mean age, 34 ± 12 years) prospectively underwent 40 paired 3D and 2D transesophageal echocardiographic studies and assessment of cerebrovascular disease manifested as acute clinical neurologic syndromes, neurocognitive dysfunction, or focal brain injury on magnetic resonance imaging. Initial and repeat studies in patients were intermixed in a blinded manner with paired studies from healthy controls, deidentified, coded, and independently interpreted by experienced observers unaware of patients' clinical and imaging data., Results: The results of 3D TEE compared with 2D TEE were more often positive for mitral or aortic valve vegetations, and 3D TEE detected more vegetations per study and determined larger sizes of vegetations (P ≤ .03 for all). Also, 3D TEE detected more vegetations on the anterior mitral leaflet, anterolateral and posteromedial scallops, and ventricular side or both atrial and ventricular sides of the leaflets (P < .05 for all). In addition, 3D TEE detected more vegetations on the aortic valve left and noncoronary cusps, coronary cusps' tips and margins, and aortic side or both aortic and ventricular sides of the cusps (P ≤ .01 for all). Furthermore, 3D TEE more often detected associated mitral or aortic valve commissural fusion (P = .002). Finally, 3D TEE detected more vegetations in patients with cerebrovascular disease (P = .01)., Conclusions: Three-dimensional TEE provides clinically relevant additive information that complements 2D TEE for the detection, characterization, and association with cerebrovascular disease of Libman-Sacks endocarditis., (Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Background: Although transthoracic echocardiography and two-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) identify cardiac myxomas with high sensitivity, anatomic and morphologic information is often incomplete. Real-time three-dimensional (3D) TEE is increasingly being used in general clinical practice. However, the use of real-time 3D TEE for the assessment of atrial myxomas has not been described., Methods: This case series of 10 patients with left atrial myxomas undergoing two-dimensional and real-time 3D TEE., Results: Correlative pathologic findings demonstrate that 3D imaging accurately identifies these tumors and provides detailed morphologic description of the tumors, which may have clinical importance., Conclusions: Because the 3D TEE is real time and can be performed preoperatively in the operating room, the surgeon may gain a better understanding of the nature and location of the tumor., (Copyright © 2011 American Society of Echocardiography. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.)

The feasibility and diagnostic accuracy of transesophageal pacing stress echocardiography for detection of inducible myocardial ischemia were evaluated in 161 patients 80 years of age or older (mean 84 +/- 3.9, range 80-97). The pacing time was 5.5 +/- 2.5 minutes with a total test time of 37 +/- 7 minutes. The mean achieved heart rate was 96 +/- 7% (83%-121%) of maximum predicted with an average rate pressure product of 21,560 +/- 5175 beats/min x mm Hg. There were minor adverse events in 8% of cases and no major complications occurred. Patient acceptance was high. When compared with myocardial single photon emission computed tomography, pacing stress echocardiography had a sensitivity of 89% and a specificity of 93% for the detection of myocardial ischemia, and 91% agreement (kappa = 0.80, P < .001). We demonstrate that pacing stress echocardiography is safe and accurate for detection of myocardial ischemia and, thus, a reliable substitute to exercise and pharmacologic stress testing in octogenarians.

This report describes the echocardiographic diagnosis of an intracardiac mass in a heart transplant patient. The typical morphology of the lesions, its attachment to the interatrial septum, and the absence of a nidus focus for thrombus formation led to the preoperative assumption that it was a myxoma. The mass was successfully excised at the time of operation and the patient had an uneventful recovery. Pathology findings revealed a thrombus. Thus, echocardiography may have limited specificity for the differentiation of intracardiac tumors and thrombus.