Two-week administration of rivaroxaban resolved left atrial thrombus

AbstractAn 89-year-old man visited our hospital complaining of palpitation. Electrocardiography showed atrial fibrillation, and transthoracic echocardiography demonstrated a mobile thrombus of 28.6mm×20.8mm in the left atrium. Administration of a direct factor Xa inhibitor rivaroxaban (10mg/day) was started. The thrombus reduced its size and disappeared completely 2 weeks after the commencement of rivaroxaban treatment. To our knowledge, this is the first case report that rivaroxaban successfully dissolved left atrial thrombus during a short period. Rivaroxaban might have a potential, not only to prevent de novo thrombus formation, but also to dissolve established thrombi by direct inhibition of free and thrombus-associated factor Xa.<Learning objective: The incidence of nonvalvular atrial fibrillation is increasing, and left atrial thrombus is the major cause of cardiogenic thrombo-embolism that we need to prevent. Recently, novel oral anticoagulants have been developed. The effects of these agents on intracardiac thrombus resolution have not been fully elucidated. Data from a large cohort study would be required to assess efficacy of novel oral anticoagulants for thrombus resolution.

Preliminary report of "Arctic Airborne Measurement Program 2002" (AAMP02)

The Arctic Airborne Measurement Program 2002(AAMP 02) campaign was carried out in March 2002 as one of the sub programs of the project Variations of atmospheric constituents and their climate impact in the Arctic". The main goal of the project was to investigate the transport, transformation and radiative effect of trace gases and aerosols, and their role in the global climate. An instrumented jet plane, Gulfstream II(G-II), was flown from Nagoya, Japan via Barrow, Alaska to Longyearbyen(78°N , 15°E ), Svalbard, crossing the Arctic Ocean in the lower stratospher. Three local flights were made over the Greenland Sea around Svalbard and two profile flights near Barrow. The plane was equipped with CO_2 and ozone analyzers, gas and aerosol sampling systems, aerosol particle counter, nephelometer, absorption photometer, PMS particle probes, sunphotometer, dew point hygrometer and dropsonde system. During the campaign, intensitive surface operations were also conducted at Ny-&Aring;lesund(79°N , 12°E ), Svalbard. Vertical profiles of several trace gases gave information about transport, a new observation by sunphotometer derived an aerosol optical depth in the stratosphere, and another new observation by dropsonde gave information on the polar vortex