title: Cardiac tumor as an initial manifestation of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.
abstract: A cardiac tumor was the first manifestation of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in a female patient in a state of severe immunodeficiency caused by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. The extensive cardiac and extracardiac involvement shown by various imaging modalities, including echocardiography and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET), suggested that she was in the critical stage of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). AIDS was treated by highly active-antiretroviral therapy and the NHL was treated by a combination of rituximab-cyclophosphamide-vincristine-doxorubicine-predonisolone. After 6 cycles of chemotherapy, she was in complete remission. Her cardiac tumor dramatically reduced in size and FDG-PET showed no positive uptake on whole body imaging. Generally, an AIDS-related cardiac tumor tends to be diagnosed at the late stage of the disease because of its nonspecific clinical findings, resulting in an extremely poor prognosis. In the present case, the cardiac tumor was detected by echocardiography and treated with appropriate chemotherapy. Early diagnosis and prompt treatment may improve a patient's prognosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, National Cardiovascular Center, Suita, Japan.
authors.forename: Noriaki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Iwahashi
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nakatani
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kakuchi
authors.forename: Masakazu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yamagishi
authors.forename: Kazuki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fukuchi
authors.forename: Yoshio
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ishida
authors.forename: Keiji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hirooka
authors.forename: Yukihiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Koretsune
authors.forename: Chisato
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ueta
authors.forename: Takuma
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shirasaka
authors.forename: Masafumi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kitakaze
mesh_terms: D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000150:complications* / Q000188:drug therapy; D000328:Adult; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging; D004452:Echocardiography; D005260:Female; D006338:Heart Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D016483:Lymphoma, AIDS-Related / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy; D008228:Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology*; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D012074:Remission Induction / Q000379:methods