• Tasuku Hasegawa, Susumu Nakagawa, Masao Chino, Takamu Kunihiro, Susumu Ui, and Mitsuru Kimura.
• Department of Cardiology, Tokyo Saiseikai Central Hospital, Mita 1-4-17, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-0073.
• J Cardiol. 2002 Jun 1; 39 (6): 321-5.

AbstractA 53-year-old woman presented with a primary cardiac sarcoma mimicking benign myxoma manifesting as progressive heart failure. Transesophageal echocardiography disclosed two separate tumors in the left atrium which appeared just like myxoma, except for the origin and multiple growth profile. Three separate tumors were identified during the operation arising from the posterior wall of the left atrium, mitral valve orifice and left atrial free wall. The histological diagnosis was malignant undifferentiated sarcoma. Six months later, she noticed dyspnea and arm numbness due to local recurrence of cardiac tumor and brain metastasis. She died suddenly 6 months after the surgery during admission. The clinical and echocardiographic findings are crucial to discriminate malignant cardiac tumors from benign myxoma. Rapidly progressive clinical course, multiple tumor growth and non-septal attachment of the tumor all suggest a malignant profile of the primary cardiac tumors. Careful and precise preoperative evaluation, including echocardiographic survey of the tumor origin and multiple growth profile, are essential to identify malignant cardiac tumor.

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