Successful lysis of right and left heart thrombus by tissue plasminogen activator

Tissue plasminogen activator (tP-A) was administered to three patients with newly developed intracardiac thrombi. Cases 1 and 2 developed right heart thrombi after radiofrequency ablation for atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia and case 3 had tachycardia-related cardiomyopathy and a left ve ntricular thrombus. In all three patients, the intracardiac thrombi were su ccessfully eliminated following t-PA therapy without major bleeding complic ations. These observations suggest that t-PA is effective in lysing new thr ombus complicating radiofrequency ablation or heart failure and may be the therapy of choice in these conditions. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.