Images in Clinical Medicine

Kim Eagle, M.D., Editor

Left Ventricular Aneurysm

Rajendra Patel, M.D., and Mohandas M. Shenoy, M.D.

N Engl J Med 1993; 329:246July 22, 1993

• Slide

Article

Figure 1 Left Ventricular Aneurysm.

The images show the results of contrast left ventriculography in a 72-year-old woman who presented with progressive cardiac failure after myocardial infarction. Panel A is a right anterior oblique view showing the left ventricle during systole. The contrast medium was injected through an angiographic catheter (arrow) passed into the left ventricle in a retrograde fashion from the aorta (AO). A large ventricular aneurysm (AN) is located at the apex of the left ventricle. The stasis of blood in the aneurysm is revealed by the contrast density, which is greater in the aneurysm than in the left ventricle. The large filling defect inside the aneurysm is a mural thrombus (T). In the diastolic frame of the left ventriculogram (Panel B), the size of the uninfarcted left ventricular segments has increased, whereas that of the aneurysm remains unchanged.

Kim Eagle, M.D.

Rajendra Patel, M.D.
Mohandas M. Shenoy, M.D.
Coney Island Hospital, Brooklyn, NY 11235