Incidental detection of an asymptomatic papillary fibroelastoma on a control biopsy of a heart transplant recipient.
BACKGROUND
Papillary fibroelastoma (PFE) of the right ventricle is a rare lesion. This tumor has not been described in the heart of a cardiac transplant recipient.


RESULTS
We report a 42-year-old woman suffering from chronic ischemic cardiopathy who underwent an orthotopic cardiac transplantation. Five years after surgery, the control two-dimensional echocardiography showed no abnormalities. At this time, the programmed endomyocardial biopsies of the right ventricle included a 2-mm lesion that was diagnosed as PFE. To our knowledge, only a previous case of this tumor has been detected at random in a control cardiac biopsy. Differential diagnosis includes chordae tendinae removed at the time of cardiac sampling, Lambl excrescence, and myxoma.


CONCLUSIONS
PFE can arise in a cardiac transplant recipient and may be detected on a random programmed biopsy.
Val-Bernal
J Fernando
JF
Department of Anatomical Pathology, Medical Faculty, Marqués de Valdecilla University Hospital, University of Cantabria, ES-39008 Santander, Spain. apavbj@humv.es
Val
Daniel
D
Garijo
M Francisca
MF
D000328:Adult; D009202:Cardiomyopathies / Q000601:surgery; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004452:Echocardiography; D005260:Female; D005350:Fibroma / Q000473:pathology*; D006338:Heart Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D016027:Heart Transplantation / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans