title: A woman with dyspnea and hemoptysis.
abstract: A 55-year-old female presented to the emergency department at a small community hospital with cough, fever, dyspnea and blood-streaked sputum. A chest radiograph was ordered. She was diagnosed with pneumonia and discharged home with antibiotics. She returned three days later, afebrile, with worsening dyspnea and gross hemoptysis. She was found to have a murmur reported as chronic but had never been evaluated by echocardiography. A computed tomography chest and echocardiography were performed (Figure). She was diagnosed with a left atrial myxoma (Video). She was transferred and underwent tumor excision.
authors.affiliation: Bayne-Jones Army Community Hospital, Department of Emergency Medicine, Fort Polk, Louisiana.
authors.forename: Steven G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Schauer
authors.affiliation: Blanchfield Army Community Hospital, Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
authors.forename: Justin C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Eisenman
mesh_terms: D004417:Dyspnea / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006325:Heart Atria; D006338:Heart Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006469:Hemoptysis / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009232:Myxoma / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*