Ultrasound examination
LAA thrombus
All patients underwent transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) and TOE exam within 24 h of admission. LAA sludge, defined as a static gelatinous echo-density, present throughout the cardiac cycle and absence of color flow within the LAA was categorized as LAA thrombus, as well as formed echo-dense masses. The LAA peak emptying velocities were obtained by pulsed- wave Doppler placed within the first third of the LAA orifice and averaged over a minimum of 5 consecutive cardiac cycles. E/eˊ ratios were calculated using the septal velocities for eˊ