Current challenges in the diagnosis and treatment of cardiac myxoma

Abstract

Methods This review is based on research of the current literature regarding the epidemiology of CM, its clinical presentation, diagnosis, and treatment. The PubMed database was searched for eligible studies and the search was restricted to the years 2000 to 2019. The search term was "cardiac myxoma" and we included observational or retrospective studies with large samples of patients who were treated for CM only. In addition, the data of interest to the present review were long-term follow-up, the recurrence rate during follow-up, and the survival rate after CM resection. Additionally, we looked for studies on novel surgical techniques for CM resection and those describing unusual CM location or clinical presentation. The primary source for data extraction were 24 articles from 15 countries, which reported on a total of 2205 patients with CM (TABLE 1). 1-24 We included studies from Europe, North and South America,

Sporadic Form of Recurrent Atrial Myxoma: The Blob Strikes Back

“…The symptoms also vary depending from being asymptomatic to constitutional symptoms including anemia, fever, cough, weight loss and headache, to embolization and hemodynamic consequences. The constitutional symptoms are linked to inflammatory markers produced by the body as well as the tumor itself including IL-6 [5,6]. The myxomas may also embolize leading to a range of manifestation including pulmonary embolism, mesenteric ischemia, strokes and even acute coronary syndrome.…”

“…Hemodynamic symptoms are the most clinical presentation in patients with myxomas. These can range from syncope, palpitations, atrial fibrillation, heart failure to sudden cardiac death [5].…”

Myxoma in patients with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy. Retrospective single-center analysis

“…Atrial myxomas are much rarer although the most frequent ones are benign cardiac tumors. The surgical incidence of atrial myxomas is 0.5/million population/year [3], and the approximate prevalence of cardiac tumors in adults is up to 0.2% in some autopsy series [4][5][6]. Most atrial myxomas are located in the left atrium.…”

Accuracy of Transthoracic Echocardiography in Diagnosis of Cardiac Myxoma: Single Centre Experience

“…Many patients are asymptomatic and CM is often an incidental finding [2]. Potentially life-threatening complications such as tumor obstruction or embolization can occur, making accurate diagnosis crucial [3,4]. However, diagnosis is challenging due to the broad differential diagnosis of CM, which includes other cardiac tumors and cardiac masses such as thrombi, vegetations, calcific lesions, and other rare conditions.…”