The electrocardiogram (ECG) of a 56-year-old woman suffering from insomnia and nervousness revealed left bundle branch block, an ECG two years previously having been normal. Echocardiography showed a perimyocardial space-occupying lesion in the area of the left ventricle. Magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated a 6 x 6 x 7 cm solid tumour, which could not be separated from the myocardium of the dorsal portion of the ventricle and the left atrial wall. Coronary angiography demonstrated a few small atypical vessels originating from the right coronary artery. An endomyocardial biopsy was equivocal. An exploratory thoracotomy revealed a large, livid tumour which could not be resected because it involved a large area of the left ventricle and left atrium. Surgical biopsy showed a cavernous haemangioma. The subsequent course (ten months' follow-up) has so far been unremarkable.

Cor triatriatum was diagnosed in a 32-year-old woman (Case 1) and a 36-year-old man (Case 2). The definitive diagnosis in Case 1 was made by transthoracic 2-D echocardiography, in Case 2 (after a chance finding) only after additional transoesophageal echocardiography. Colour Doppler echo in Case 1 provided information on the number and localization of membrane openings, while in Case 2 simultaneous measurement of maximal flow velocity and normal right-sided pressures indicated that the anomaly was haemodynamically insignificant owing to the size of the central opening in the membrane (maximal diameter 2.1 cm). In Case 1, abnormal haemodynamic findings on right-heart catheterization provided the indication for surgery and the membrane was successfully removed. Postoperatively the patient was much improved and cardiac catheterization demonstrated normal values.

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