RESUMEN
Intracardiac tumour is rare, and intracardiac myxoma is the most common intracardiac tumour of the heart. The majority of these tumours arise at the left and right atrium, and a presentation of such a tumour other than the mentioned is atypical and very rare. Due to the rare occurrence, clinicians often misdiagnose it as infective endocarditis especially if the tumour is located near the valves and causing outflow gradient stenosis on echocardiography. A multi-modal cardiac imaging and a multi-disciplinary approach are paramount to make a correct diagnosis and treatment strategies. We would like to report a rare case of a right ventricular myxoma of a young girl, who was initially treated with infective endocarditis, which turned out to be a rare atypical Right ventricular myxoma, which was then surgically excised. The patient was successfully discharged after 3 years of follow up echocardiography showed free of tumour recurrence.
RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Primary endocardial tumours are rare, but may impose a difficult clinical problem. The definite diagnosis regarding the nature of the tumour is often made after surgery. This is due to the fact that current non-invasive imaging techniques are unable to inform us about the nature of the tumour. In addition, invasive techniques can not be used to obtain biological information of the tumour in these cases, because they carry a high risk of embolic complications. OBJECTIVE: To assess the possibility of a novel modality of imaging, molecular imaging, in the diagnosis of primary intracardiac tumours. METHODS: We evaluated two patients with a primary cardiac tumour. Prior to therapy, we infused human recombinant annexin-V Tc99-m and thallium 201. We used a dual isotope single photon emission computed tomography technique. This allowed us to obtain information about the relation between the anatomical position of the left ventricle and the uptake of the labelled annexin-V within the thoracic cavity. RESULTS: The patient with a malignant primary cardiac tumour showed uptake of labelled annexin-V within the area of the tumour. After surgery, the malignant nature was confirmed by histological analysis. The patient with a benignant intracardiac tumour showed no uptake of annexin-V within the area of the tumour. CONCLUSION: This novel imaging technique, molecular imaging, may be of help to differentiate non-invasively between a malignant and benignant primary intracardiac tumour.