Three-dimensional echocardiography in rapid differentiation of the left ventricular mass - a case of left ventricular myxoma

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Atrial myxoma: the cardiac chameleon

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[Giant Left Atrial Myxoma Complicated with Hemorrhagic Cerebral Infarction]

A 48-year-old woman developed paralysis of the left upper limb and dysarthria. Two days later, she was admitted to a local hospital due to no improvement of symptoms. Brain magnetic resonance imaging showed acute hemorrhagic cerebral infarction in the left nucleus basalis. Echocardiography demonstrated a large left atrial mass in the left atrium, shuttling between the left atrium and the left ventricle and moderate mitral regurgitation. Then, she was transferred to our hospital for surgery. Five days after the initial symptoms, resection of the left atrial mass was performed under total cardiopulmonary bypass. First, heparin sodium, and then nafamostat mesilate were used as intraoperative anticoagulation treatment. The left mitral mass was removed via an atrial septal incision and the defect was repaired using a bovine pericardium. The mitral valve was intact and there was no regurgitation. The mass was immunohistologically diagnosed as myxoma. Postoperative brain computed tomography scans demonstrated no exacerbation of the cerebral infarction. She was discharged 13 days after surgery without neurological symptoms.

Left ventricle cardiac myxoma as a cause of ischaemic stroke in young patient treated by mechanical thrombectomy

Cardiac myxoma is a rare cause of cardioembolic stroke, especially in young patients. Acute treatment includes intravenous thrombolysis or acute thrombectomy via mechanical recanalisation. We present a case of a young 21-year-old woman with no symptoms of dyspnoea who suddenly developed expressive aphasia and right-sided hemiparesis due to a thrombus in the left middle cerebral artery followed by the left anterior cerebral artery. She underwent acute mechanical thrombectomy with improvement of the neurological status. Bedside ultrasonography detected a suspected myxoma, which was further confirmed by a CT scan as a myxoma in the left cardiac ventricle. The patient underwent successful surgery. We stress on the importance of echocardiographic examination in young patients after ischaemic stroke and multidisciplinary team cooperation in the treatment management of such patients.

Cardiac uptake patterns in routine 18F-FDG PET-CT scans: A pictorial review

Broad variability of 18F-Fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (FDG) uptake is noted in myocardium while performing FDG PET-CT scans for viability, infection, or oncologic purposes. While most of the uptakes are considered non-specific, presence of underlying cardiac disease is seldom encountered. With this presentation, our intent is to pictorially highlight the variable FDG uptake patterns associated with the normal variations, benign, and malignant disease.

Synovial Myxoma: Found in Canines, Rabbits, and Now Humans Too?: A Case Report

CASE

A 63 year-old woman presented with a multiple-year history of right knee pain and effusions and pain refractory to numerous knee aspirations and an arthroscopic synovectomy. The patient underwent a 2-incision synovectomy and intralesional resection. A pathologic review of the specimens revealed an infiltrative tumor of basophilic, cluster of differentiation 68-positive synovial cells embedded within a myxoid stroma with low proliferative activity, most consistent with a synovial myxoma.

CONCLUSIONS

This case report of a synovial myxoma-a benign, slow growing but locally aggressive mass that is most commonly found in canines-indicates that the lesion may occasionally occur in humans.

Pulmonary embolism as the initial manifestation of right atrial myxoma: A case report and review of the literature

RATIONALE

Pulmonary embolisms (PEs) are caused by emboli, which mostly originate from deep venous thrombi that travel to and suddenly block the pulmonary arteries. The emboli are usually thrombi, and right atrial myxoma emboli are rare.

PATIENT CONCERNS

A 55-year-old man presented with shortness of breath and syncope. We proceeded with computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) and transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE), the results of which suggested that the diagnosis was a right atrial mass.

DIAGNOSIS

A definitive diagnosis compatible with a right atrial myxoma (RAM) with tumoral pulmonary emboli after surgical excision was made.

INTERVENTION

Right atrial and pulmonary artery embolectomy.

OUTCOMES

The patient followed an uneventful course during the 6 years of follow-up after surgery. According to a review of the literature, RAMs are often not diagnosed in a timely manner or even go completely undiagnosed. TTE, transesophageal echocardiography (TEE), CT, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and positron emission tomography/computed tomography may be helpful in the preoperative diagnosis. Surgical removal of the masses from the atrium and pulmonary arteries was relatively uneventful.

LESSONS

RAMs should be considered unlikely reasons for fatal pulmonary embolisms.

Acute blindness as a presenting sign of left atrial myxoma in a pediatric patient: A case report and literature review

RATIONALE

Central retinal artery occlusion (CRAO) due to cardiac myxoma primarily occurs in elderly individuals. Early detection and surgical resection of myxoma are extremely important because CRAO causes complete blindness in most cases. However, due to the extremely low incidence of CRAO caused by cardiac myxoma in the pediatric age group, such condition is rarely reported.

PATIENT CONCERNS

A 16-year-old female patient visited our hospital due to sudden onset of vision loss in the left eye, dysarthria, and right-sided hemiplegia.

DIAGNOSES

She was diagnosed with CRAO via fundoscopy. Results showed a cherry-red spot, indicating CRAO. Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed multifocal diffusion-restricted foci, particularly in the left frontal lobe. Echocardiography revealed a left atrial mass measuring 4.21 cm × 2.25 cm. The mass was attached to the interseptum and moved along the inflow of the mitral valve. Cardiac computed tomography (CT) revealed an enhanced mass measuring 3 cm × 2.2 cm × 3 cm and with irregular margin on the anterior wall of the left atrium and the border of the fossa ovalis.

INTERVENTIONS

The patient underwent surgical excision under general anesthesia. Intraoperative finding showed a huge, jelly-like, and extremely friable mass. Pathological examination confirmed myxoma.

OUTCOMES

During a follow-up of 2 years after diagnosis, she did not present with other neurological deficits and no residual mass was observed on echocardiography. However, visual impairment of the left eye persisted.

LESSONS

Most patients with CRAO may present with other mild symptoms that are often be neglected before CRAO development. We recommend that patients who present with frequent syncopal attack or symptoms of transient ischemic attack should undergo echocardiography.

Radiomic features from MRI distinguish myxomas from myxofibrosarcomas

BACKGROUND

Myxoid tumors pose diagnostic challenges for radiologists and pathologists. All myxoid tumors can be differentiated from each other using fluorescent in-situ hybridization (FISH) or immunohistochemical markers, except for myxomas and myxofibrosarcomas. Myxomas and myxofibrosarcomas are rare tumors. Myxomas are benign and histologically bland, whereas myxofibrosarcomas are malignant and histologically heterogenous. Because of the histological heterogeneity, low grade myxofibrosarcomas may be mistaken for myxomas on core needle biopsies. We evaluated the performance of T1-weighted signal intensity (T1SI), tumor volume, and radiomic features extracted from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to differentiate myxomas from myxofibrosarcomas.

METHODS

The MRIs of 56 patients (29 with myxomas, 27 with myxofibrosarcomas) were analyzed. We extracted 89 radiomic features. Random forests based classifiers using the T1SI, volume features, and radiomic features were used to differentiate myxomas from myxofibrosarcomas. The classifiers were validated using a leave-one-out cross-validation. The performances of the classifiers were then compared.

RESULTS

Myxomas had lower normalized T1SI than myxofibrosaromas (p = 0.006) and the AUC using the T1SI was 0.713. However, the classification model using radiomic features had an AUC of 0.885 (accuracy = 0.839, sensitivity = 0.852, specificity = 0.828), and outperformed the classification models using T1SI (AUC = 0.713) and tumor volume (AUC = 0.838). The classification model using radiomic features was significantly better than the classifier using T1SI values (p = 0.039).

CONCLUSIONS

Myxofibrosarcomas are on average higher in T1-weighted signal intensity than myxomas. Myxofibrosarcomas are larger and have shape differences compared to myxomas. Radiomic features performed best for differentiating myxomas from myxofibrosarcomas compared to T1-weighted signal intensity and tumor volume features.

Image of the month: Ventricular myxoma mimicking hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

A 5-year-old boy with an incidentally detected cardiac murmur was referred for evaluation. Tall R waves were noted in the electrocardiogram in leads V3 and V4. Transthoracic echocardiography suggested asymmetric septal hypertrophy with diffuse thickening of the inter-ventricular septum with normal thickness of the posterior left ventricular wall. Upon closer interrogation, a masquerading sessile cardiac mass was identified adherent to the left ventricular side of the inter-ventricular septum which appeared to contract with each cardiac cycle, mimicking hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Aggressive Angiomyxoma: A Rare Tumor of Male Pelvic Cavity

Aggressive angiomyxoma is an uncommon, benign, slow-growing, and locally infiltrative soft tissue neoplasm which is located primarily in the genital region and pelviperineal interstitial tissue of female patient in the fourth decade of life. Its occurrence in male patients is even more unusual and commonly appears at a later age. The mainstay of treatment typically involves surgical excision with tumor-free margins, and despite complete resection, local recurrences are common. Here, an unusual case of aggressive angiomyxoma occurring in the pelvic region of a 55-year-old man and its treatment is discussed due to its rarity.

Stroke and peripheral embolisms in a pediatric patient with giant atrial myxoma: Case report and review of current literature

RATIONALE

Cerebral stroke with peripheral embolism due to left atrial myxoma is very rare in children. Misdiagnosis may occur because of nonspecific symptoms in the heart.

PATIENT CONCERNS

We present a case of a 16-year-old boy who presented with ischemic stroke and embolisms in the lower extremity, caused by a giant left atrial myxoma.

DIAGNOSES

Left atrial myxoma.

INTERVENTIONS

A giant gelatinous mass was completely excised, and the histopathological findings confirmed the diagnosis of atrial myxoma.

OUTCOMES

The temperature of the right lower extremity recovered gradually, and pulse of the right dorsalis pedis artery became palpable 10 days after the surgery. The strength of the bilateral lower extremity was level 5 at discharge.

LESSONS

Our case, along with the review of the literature, highlights the fact that myxomas often initially present with multiple embolisms but with few cardiac symptoms. Transthoracic echocardiography should be performed immediately to make a definitive diagnosis.

[A Case of Aggressive Angiomyxoma in a 75-Year-Old Man]

Aggressive angiomyxoma is an uncommon mesenchymal tumor that mostly involves the pelvic and perineal regions in young women.We herein report an extremely rare case of aggressive angiomyxoma in a 75-year-old man. The patient had undergone follow-up for an intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm.In September 2015, CT detected a tumor measuring 33 mm in diameter around the pelvis, and the tumor showed gradual increase in size.MRI revealed a relatively sharply marginated tumor with low signal intensity on T1-weighted images and high signal intensity on T2-weighted images.For treatment and diagnosis, we laparoscopically resected the tumor. Histopathologically, the specimen showed spindle tumor cells within a myxoid background and vascular structures.The tumor was diagnosed as aggressive angiomyxoma, and surgical margins were negative for tumor cells. The patient is currently doing well without any signs of recurrence as of 18 months postoperatively.

Calcified inferior vena cava and right atrial myxoma in an 18-month-old male: A case report

INTRODUCTION

Cardiac myxomas are the most frequent primary cardiac tumor in adults. The incidence in pediatric patients is extremely low. Heavy calcification of an atrial myxoma is uncommon in children.

CASE PRESENTATION

An 18-month-old boy was admitted for a significant precordial systolic murmur. Transthoracic echocardiography revealed a cardiac mass extending from the inferior vena cava across the right atrium and tricuspid valve into the right ventricle with severe tricuspid regurgitation. According to the echocardiography result, the patient was diagnosed with an inferior vena cava and right atrial tumor with tricuspid regurgitation. After the diagnosis, the patient underwent removal of the tumor via median sternotomy. The mass was removed under cardiopulmonary bypass with deep hypothermia circulatory arrest. The tricuspid valve was repaired by valvuloplasty and annuloplasty. The postoperative recovery was unremarkable. Follow-up echocardiogram at 1 month revealed moderate tricuspid regurgitation without myxoma recurrence.

CONCLUSION

Heavy calcification of an atrial myxoma is uncommon especially in children. Definitive therapy for myxomas requires prompt surgical excision and long-term follow-up is recommended in children although recurrence after excision is rare.