title: Massive left atrial sarcoma presenting with severe congestive heart failure.
abstract: Primary intimal sarcomas of the left atrium are extremely rare and highly aggressive tumours. To our knowledge, only 4 cases have been reported to date. We report on a 42-year-old man who presented with signs of congestive heart failure and was found to have an enormous left atrial bilobed tumour with obstruction of the mitral valve. The patient underwent a surgical excision of the sarcoma. The tumour recurred 8.5 months later and the patient required right pneumonectomy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, University of Alberta Hospital, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: Emily J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Kuurstra
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, University of Alberta Hospital, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Electronic address: jmullen@ualberta.ca.
authors.forename: John C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Mullen
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, University of Alberta Hospital, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: Roderick G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: MacArthur
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D006325:Heart Atria; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000209:etiology* / Q000601:surgery; D006338:Heart Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local; D011013:Pneumonectomy; D011667:Pulmonary Veins / Q000473:pathology; D012509:Sarcoma / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery