Bilateral atrial tumors--report of an elderly man with a heavily calcified left atrial tumor.
We report here an 88-year-old male who had been treated with antiarrhythmic drugs because of occasional premature ventricular contraction. The plain chest X-ray film showed a heavily calcified mass within the cardiac silhouette. Transthoracic echocardiography revealed a mobile tumor in the left atrium, which had not prolapsed through the mitral valve into the left ventricle. Transthoracic echocardiography also revealed a tumor in the right atrium. Magnetic resonance imaging of the heart showed that these tumors were attached to the atrial septum by a stalk. The patient had had no history of systemic embolization, syncopal attack or heart failure caused by these tumors. Considering his advanced age, a conservative treatment was agreed upon. At present, he is 93 year-old and in good health. Although the surgical treatment of cardiac tumors has progressed to the point where it represents low risk, even for elderly patients, our present case suggests that some cases of atrial tumors may have a good prognosis even with conservative treatment.
First Department of Internal Medicine, Nissei Hospital, Osaka, Japan.
O
O
Nakajima
Y
Y
Yamada
M
M
Ii
T
T
Moriguchi
I
I
Sano
H
H
Akioka
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002114:Calcinosis; D006325:Heart Atria / Q000473:pathology*; D006338:Heart Neoplasms; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male