Cardiac Tumors and Masses

Wu, Justina

doi:10.1007/978-1-4471-4441-0_25

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…The location of the tumor may also offer some clue as to its morphological type. [5][6][7] The echocardio-graphic appearance of certain tumors may be pathognomonic such as a left atrial myxoma prolapsing across a mitral valve may not need any further workup for diagnosis.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Normal or variant structures noted include calcified or multi-lobed papillary muscle, redundant mitral chordae, trabeculations, false tendons, and focal upper septal hypertrophy. [5][6][7] Survival is dependent on the tumor classification, type of tumor histology and the patient's functional status. Sarcomas specifically are described as having a poor prognosis when they affect the myocardium with median survival reported at 6-12 months.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A rare presentation of a soft tissue sarcoma metastasized to the left ventricle

Ziffra

Maze

2016

CRIM

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Primary cardiac tumors are a rare diagnosis with a reported incidence of 0.001%-0.1% in the general population. They provide a diagnostic challenge as the patients may be asymptomatic or have a wide variety of symptoms. Because of this, cardiac tumors are often discovered incidentally by imaging modalities or during surgery. Secondary tumors that metastasize to the heart are more common with an incidence of 0.7%-3.5% in the general population and up to 9.1% in patients with known malignancies. Metastatic tumors most frequently involve the pericardium followed by the epicardium and myocardium. Intracavitary and endocardial metastasis has been rarely described in the literature. We present a case of a patient who had a known soft tissue sarcoma with widespread metastases who presented because of dyspnea. In her workup, a transthoracic echocardiogram revealed an intracavitary mass attached to the left ventricular side of the interventricular septum presumed to be a sarcoma. In our comprehensive literature search, a sarcoma has rarely been reported in the left ventricle. We have found that sarcomas that do metastasize to the myocardium often are highly differentiated and carry a poor prognosis. A cardiac tumor may be detected by transthoracic echocardiogram, transesophageal echocardiogram, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT) or PET scan. The transthoracic echocardiogram is the preferred modality given its availability, cost and portability. Additional imaging modalities such as contrast echocardiography and MRI can help differentiate cardiac tumors from other cardiac masses such as thombi or vegetations. Because of the inability to rely on physical signs and symptoms, there must be a high degree of suspicion when a patient with known metastatic disease presents with cardiac complaints. It is important for clinicians to be aware of how different imaging modalities can help guide their differential diagnosis of cardiac masses.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%