Pacemaker lead and atrial thrombosis, a rare event but of high clinical importance

Aims: Trans-venous lead-related thrombosis is an undervalued issue. Since the lack of guidelines or evidences regarding the best therapeutic option, treatment of endocavitary clots on pacemaker wire is left to individual decision between surgical catheter extraction, thrombolysis, or anticoagulation therapy. In some patients, the labile equilibrium between hemorrhagic and thrombotic events may further complicate management.
Methods and results: We report the case of a 86-years-old man with heart failure (HF) severely reduced ejection fraction due to chronic ischaemic cardiomyopathy and several co-morbidities. He had a reacution of HF requiring hospitalization secondary to new-onset atrial flutter. During hospital stay, in light of episodes of severe bradycardia, he underwent single-lead PM implantation. Few days after discharge he developed deep vein thrombosis in situ of PM electro catheter insertion (poor compliance to anticoagulation therapy was reported) which improved after few days of regular therapy assumption. After few months anticoagulation therapy was dismitted
due to etiology unknown-anemization requiring transfusion, but 20 days later he was
once again admitted, this time because of pulmonary embolism. Trans thoracic echocardiography
(TTE) enlightened a severely dysfunctioning right ventricle and a mass in right atrium hanging the wire. Trans oesophageal echocardiography was then performed showing hyper-reflective and highly mobile material with numerous ‘arborizations’. Intravenous heparin was started as pulmonary embolism therapy. Once infective etiology was excluded, total body computer tomography was performed to investigate a possible paraneoplastic origin. Presence of a meningioma was enlightened. Heart-team evaluation excluded catheter extraction in light of
patient’s frailty, while thrombolysis was controindicated. Vitamin K antagonists was then started. At 1 month follow up no further embolic neither haemorrhagic events were reported. TTE showed a reduction in mass dimension and an improvement in right ventricle function.
Conclusions: In a guidelines-lacking field, VKA can be an effective option in cases of lead-related thrombosis when surgery or thrombolysis is not suitable. Further studies are needed to establish their real effectiveness in management of E-C-related endocavitary thrombi.