Sonolucent Space Posterior to Left Atrium: Unusual Echocardiographic Appearance in a Cardiac Transplant Patient

Abstract

The usual echocardiographic appearances of the atria in heart transplant patients are well known. We report a case of an 81-year-old man with a 16-year-old cardiac transplant who showed a "new" echocardiographic left atrial abnormality. Two-dimensional echocardiography showed a large sonolucent space behind the donor left atrium (DLA), which was at first perplexing. This space, the distorted and partly displaced recipient left atrium (RLA), could be shown to communicate with the donor left atrium, by the use of unconventional imaging and by optison opacification.