Increased levels of markers of oxidative stress and inflammation in patients with rheumatic mitral stenosis predispose to left atrial thrombus formation.

Background: Rheumatic mitral stenosis (MS) causes stagnation of blood flow, leading to thrombus formation in the left atrium (LA), which may lead to systemic thromboembolic complications. We compared alterations in circulating levels of pro-/anti-oxidants and markers of inflammation in patients of severe rheumatic MS with and without LA thrombus and studied their predictive power to detect the presence of LA thrombus in patients with rheumatic MS.

Material And Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of 80 patients with rheumatic MS, evaluated for percutaneous mitral commisurotomy.