title: Space-occupying lesions of the myocardium: role of two-dimensional echocardiography in detection of cardiac tumors in children.
abstract: Four patients with space-occupying myocardial lesions were studied using electronically focused high-resolution two-dimensional echocardiography. In two patients with clusters of high-intensity echoes at various depths on the epicardial surface, histology confirmed the diagnosis of lymphosarcoma, showing patchy, malignant infiltrates of different thickness. The remaining two patients had very different features: the lesions appeared to be intrinsic to the posterior left ventricular wall. One patient who had arrhythmias and a small encapsulated noncontractile mass had a histologically proved rhabdomyoma. In the second patient fibroma was histologically confirmed. In these two patients the position of the lesions was confirmed by angiocardiography. Two-dimensional echocardiography greatly improved delineation of space-occupying cardiac masses and is an accurate method for confirming the presence of such lesions.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004452:Echocardiography; D005260:Female; D005350:Fibroma / Q000175:diagnosis; D006338:Heart Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000556:secondary; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008228:Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin / Q000175:diagnosis; D008297:Male; D008479:Mediastinal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D012207:Rhabdomyoma / Q000175:diagnosis