Brain Metastasis of Cardiac Myxoma: Case Report and Review of the Literature

Abstract

Cardiac myxoma is the most common benign heart tumor. Cardiac myxoma can be a sporadic lesion (93% of cases) and usually occurs in women over 30 years. Complete surgical removal of the myxoma and its cardiac attachment is usually curative. The frequency of recurrences in cardiac myxomas varies between 3% for sporadic cases and 22% for cases of Carney complex. Recurrence has been related to incomplete excision, multifocality, and embolism of tumor fragments. We report a case with multiple brain metastases presumably due to tumor embolization from previously operated cardiac myxoma.

Ancient cardiac myxomas – another point of view in the light of tetraspanins

“…From a clinical point of view it is important to note that they are often diagnosed as parietal endocardial thrombus on magnetic resonance (MR) and ultrasonographic imaging. As we take into account that the differential diagnosis is hindered by a variety of calcifications in our relatively limited group, it is not unusual to record that the clinical picture is also overlapped by such degenerative changes in the literature [17,18,23,34]. These additional morphological traits make tumors friable and prone to micro-fragmentation with release of particles of them to the circulation especially in sessile tumors [17,18,23,34].…”

“…The risk of recurrences increases in the case of familial myxomas in association with the Carney complex and a mutation in the PRKAR1A gene [10,17]. Characteristically, the rate of recurrences of cardiac myxomas was estimated to vary between 3% for sporadic cases and 22% for tumors of the Carney complex [18]. Detachment, and inoculation of myxoma particles is considered as a direct cause of tumor displacement [19].…”

Repeated multiple intracranial hemorrhages induced by cardiac myxoma mimicking cavernous angiomas: a case report

“…For this case, we believe that further intracranial lesions resection is more suitable than consevative therapy. Some authors also suggest that chemotherapy in combination with low-dose radiation for multiple lesions, but there are only four reported cases that received 25-60Gy brain radiation in previous studies,and one of these patients died of enlarging intracranial masses [1,9,13,15].…”

Recurrent non-aneurysmal, metastatic intraparenchymal haemorrhages following resection of atrial myxoma - case report and literature review

“…Tumours originating from the heart are a rarity with a reported incidence between 0.0017 and 2.8% in various autopsy series 1–4. Most are true neoplasms, albeit benign, with myxomas accounting for more than half of these 1 3 5–9.…”