Mitral valve and right ventricular thrombi possibly caused by heparin-induced thrombocytopenia

Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) is a devastating complication of heparin treatment that can be associated with arterial and venous thrombosis (1). The major clinical manifestations are presented in Table 1. Sachais et al. (2) reported that in patients receiving heparin, prevalence of HIT ranges up to 5.0%. Serological and platelet function tests have high sensitivity in diagnosis of HIT. The cessation of heparin and using direct thrombin inhibitors (e.g., argatroban, lepirudin, and danaparoid) as an anticoagulation therapy are the mainstays of treatment.