title: Intracardiac myxomas: twenty-year echocardiographic experience with review of the literature.
abstract: We reviewed the echocardiograms of 35 patients with intracardiac myxomas. Patient data were combined from two geographically distant laboratories. No significant variations in the patient profiles were encountered. Most patients were white (33 of 35) with a mean age of 45 years. The diagnosis was suspected on clinical grounds alone in only six of 35 patients before the echocardiogram was done. M-mode recordings were the primary echocardiographic modality available in the first 16 patients, whereas two-dimensional studies were also done in the others. Continuous and pulsed wave Doppler echocardiography were added in eight of the most recent studies. In one patient color flow imaging from both transthoracic and esophageal approaches was possible to better visualize a large left atrial tumor. Thirty-three patients had solitary tumors (29 left atrial, three right atrial, and one left ventricular), and two had multiple tumors. The most characteristic finding, as expected, was the demonstration of abnormal mass echoes produced by the myxoma tissue. Several interesting features not previously emphasized in the literature included abnormal notching of the interventricular septum and posterior left ventricular wall probably produced by displacement from the larger mobile left atrial tumors dropping into the mitral sleeve. This was best appreciated by the M-mode recordings. In one patient with an associated atrial septal defect, movement of the tumor into the defect appeared to alter the expected downward displacement into the mitral orifice. In the patients who were studied by two-dimensional, Doppler, or color flow imaging, tumor movement was evidenced by abnormal frequency shifts, and dispersion of flow around the tumor mass was readily appreciated. Surgical removal was performed in all patients. Follow-up echocardiograms were done postoperatively ranging up to 17 years. Recurrent tumors occurred in two patients, both of whom had congenital myxomas. Echocardiography is proving to be an unparalleled tool in the diagnosis of intracardiac tumors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC 27103.
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Nomeir
authors.forename: L E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Watts
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Seagle
authors.forename: C R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Joyner
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Corman
authors.forename: R W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Prichard
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004452:Echocardiography; D005260:Female; D006338:Heart Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009232:Myxoma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology