Heart failure caused by cardiac rhabdomyosarcoma.
Rhabdomyosarcoma accounts for 20% of primary malignant cardiac tumours. We describe a woman with cardiac rhabdomyosarcoma. She had loss of appetite, loss of weight, and symptoms of heart failure. A mobile tumour in the left atrium, entering the left ventricle during diastole, was detected by transthoracic echocardiography. The tumour was removed surgically in total; histological diagnosis was rhabdomyosarcoma; however, the patient died after 6 months. In conclusion, primary malignant cardiac tumours can simulate heart failure or systemic disorders. Cardiac rhabdomyosarcomas have a poor prognosis with average survival of 6 months after diagnosis.
Damjanovic
Miodrag
M
Clinical Center of Nis, Bulevar Nemanjica 72a/25, 18000 Nis, Serbia and Montenegro. miodrag@ptt.yu
Djordjevic-Radojkovic
Danijela
D
Perisic
Zoran
Z
Apostolovic
Svetlana
S
Koracevic
Goran
G
Tomasevic
Miloje
M
Pavlovic
Milan
M
Jankovic
Ruzica
R
D000368:Aged; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000209:etiology*; D006338:Heart Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D012208:Rhabdomyosarcoma / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology