title: The echocardiographic spectrum of atrial myxoma: a ten-year experience.
abstract: We analyzed the echocardiograms of 28 patients with a left atrial myxoma and two with a right atrial myxoma. Our purpose was to evaluate the value of echocardiography for the diagnosis of these cardiac masses. Only 59% of the m-mode echocardiograms in patients with a left atrial myxoma showed the characteristic findings of multiple diastolic echoes within the mitral orifice as well as abnormal systolic echoes within the left atrium. M-mode echocardiograms were atypical for left atrial myxoma in the remaining patients, and a definitive diagnosis could not be established on the basis of this procedure in six of the patients (22%). Two-dimensional echocardiography showed the presence of a left atrial mass in all 16 patients who had the procedure, and aided in understanding the atypical m-mode recordings. There was a close relationship (r =.82) between two-dimensional echocardiographic measurements of the myxomas' size and pathologic measurements. Both right atrial myxomas could be identified on the m-mode echocardiogram. Our experience indicates that two-dimensional echocardiography is superior to the m-mode technique for the diagnosis and characterization of left atrial myxomas.
authors.affiliation: Clayton Foundation for Research Cardiovascular Laboratories and the Division of Cardiology of St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital and the Texas Heart Institute, Houston 77225, USA.
authors.forename: L W
authors.initials: LW
authors.lastname: Pechacek
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gonzalez-Camid
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Hall
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Garcia
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: de Castro
authors.forename: R D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Leachman
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Montiel-Amoroso