Abstract
Background
Catheter-related right atrial thrombosis is a rare, but potentially life threatening complication in patients with central venous catheters (CVCs). Echocardiography is an indispensable tool in the diagnosis of right atrial thrombosis. We present a case of a young man with lymphoma, Staphylococcus aureus sepsis and a peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) who had a septic thrombus in the right atrium.
Case summary
A 23-year-old male patient with recently diagnosed Hodgkin’s lymphoma had an inserted PICC for the purpose of chemotherapy application. Three days after the first chemotherapy application a thrombosis of the cephalic and subclavian veins at the site of PICC was found. The PICC was removed and the patient was treated with therapeutic doses of dalteparin. A day after the discovery of thrombosis, the patient became clinically septic, with high inflammatory markers and Staphylococcus aureus was isolated from his blood cultures. He was promptly treated with flucloxacillin. Due to pain in his left knee, a knee puncture was performed, and Staphylococcus aureus was isolated also from the knee synovial fluid. A transthoracic echocardiography revealed a 2.8 x 2.8 cm sessile thrombus on the lateral wall of the right atrium. There were no vegetations on the tricuspid or other valves. Due to increasing pain in his left knee and an increase in inflammatory markers a synovectomy was performed. After the operation the clinical status improved and the inflammatory parameters decreased. A magnetic resonance imaging of the heart was performed, which confirmed the thrombus described by echocardiography and excluded the presence of abscesses.
All the time the patient was treated in the intensive care unit with standard heparin, flucloxacillin, and piperacillin/tazobactam due to neutropenia. The inflammatory markers slowly decreased and all further blood cultures were negative. Follow-up echocardiography after 16 days of antibiotic and anticoagulant therapy revealed that the mass in the right atrium, attached on the lateral atrium wall, was slightly smaller than before. The mass was centrally un-echogenic with echogenic cover, appearing as a partial regression of the septic thrombus with a central colliquation. The heart valves remained free of vegetations. There was a minor pericardial effusion, with no signs of constriction. Due to improved clinical status the patient was able to start with chemotherapy again after a pause of three weeks.
Conclusion
The patient had three important risk factors for thrombosis: PICC, sepsis and malignancy.
Echocardiography is an important tool for mass diagnosis and the exclusion of vegetations in a septic patient. Often there is a need for further specification of the mass etiology or for the exclusion of other pathology, like abscesses in our case. Magnetic resonance is an important tool that can complement the echocardiographic examination.
Abstract P1498 Figure. Right atrial thrombus
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