title: Incidental finding of a giant asymptomatic right atrial tumor.
abstract: Primary cardiac tumors are very rare, atrial myxoma being the most common benign tumor of the heart. They may present with a great variety of incidental asymptomatic masses to severe life-threatening cardiovascular complications necessitating emergency surgery. Here we report the diagnostic evaluation and successful surgical resection of such a giant cardiac tumor which was found on a routine medical check-up in a 62-year-old patient. Histology confirmed diagnosis of unusually huge myxoma. This article demonstrates it's necessary to include cardiac tumors in the differential diagnosis of subtle and non-specific cardiothoracic symptoms.
authors.affiliation: Center of Cardiac Surgery, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Strecker
authors.affiliation: Institute of Pathology, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg Germany.
authors.forename: Abbas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Agaimy
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg Germany.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zelzer
authors.affiliation: Center of Cardiac Surgery, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg Germany.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Weyand
authors.affiliation: Institute of Pathology, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg Germany.
authors.forename: David Lukas
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Wachter
mesh_terms: D004452:Echocardiography; D005260:Female; D006325:Heart Atria / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D006338:Heart Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D033162:Incidental Findings; D008875:Middle Aged; D009232:Myxoma / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery
keywords: Cardiac tumors; echocardiography; myxoma; pathology; surgery