title: An unusual right atrial mass: case report and review of the literature.
abstract: An 80-year-old woman presented with dyspnoea. Laboratory test results and ECG were normal but echocardiography revealed a right atrial round mobile mass measuring about 20 mm. CT scan and cardiac MRI showed a mass appending on the right atrial free wall above the tricuspid annulus, enhanced by contrast, without any thoracic or abdominal extension, and confirmed the diagnosis of a tumour. After surgical treatment, the pathological examination revealed a cardiac papillary fibroelastoma. This small primary cardiac benign neoplasm usually occurs on cardiac valves, but can also appear, as described here, in a non-valvular localization. The diagnosis is, up to now, usually made by echocardiography, but CT and MR imaging could lead to a better description and analysis of this underestimated tumour.
authors.affiliation: Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Brugmann, Cardiology Dept., Place A. Van Gehuchten 4, 1020 Brussels, Belgium. emmanuel.catez@chu-brugmann.be
authors.forename: Emmanuel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Catez
authors.forename: Valentin
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Tatnga Ngatcha
authors.forename: Serge
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Catez
mesh_terms: D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003287:Contrast Media; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004452:Echocardiography; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D006325:Heart Atria / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D006338:Heart Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
chemical_list: D003287:Contrast Media