Left Atrial Myxoma Revealed by a Stroke in a Young Female Patient

Abstract

Introduction: Cardiac myxoma is a primary benign tumor most often located in the left atrium and it is a rare source of cerebral stroke of young subjects.
 Case Presentation: We report the case of a young women with cardiac myxoma revelated by hemiplegia.
 The patient suddenly presented vertigo followed by a fall, a heaviness of her left body, and dysarthria.
 Brain CT tomography and magnetic resonance imaging revealed cerebral ischemia in the right Sylvian territory. Transthoracic echocardiography revealed a round cardiac mass, mobile, heterogeneous, multilobed, appended to the interatrial septum and the atrial side of the large mitral valve by wide implantation, measuring 38 x 25mm in the parasternal short axis (PSAX) and apical 4 chamber views evocative of left atrium myxoma. After the surgical resection, which was postponed for a month, the removed tumor was sent for histopathological examination. The morphological examination revealed a myxoid tumor proliferation compatible with cardiac myxoma expressing calretinin by these tumor cells in the immunohistochemical study.
 Conclusion: Left atrium myxoma is a benign cardiac tumor and a rare cause of ischemic stroke. Transthoracic echocardiography facilitates the diagnosis of this tumor which will then be confirmed by histological analysis.