Cardiology Letters 2018, 27(1):27-30

Benign heart tumors - cardiac myxoma

Nehaj F¹, Kubašková M², Sokol J³, Mokáň M¹, Jankovičová V⁴, Michalová R¹, Kovář F¹, Mizera S⁵, Galajda P¹, Péč M⁶, Mokáň M¹

¹ I. Interná klinika, Jesseniova lekárska fakulta v Martine, Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave, Martin

² Rádiologická klinika, Jesseniova lekárska fakulta v Martine, Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave, Martin

³ Klinika hematológie a transfuziológie, Jesseniova lekárska fakulta v Martine, Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave, Martin

⁴ Stredoslovenský ústav srdcových a cievnych chorôb, Banská Bystrica

⁵ Národný ústav srdcových a cievnych chorôb, Bratislava, Slovenská republika

⁶ Študent 4. ročníka Jesseniovej lekárskej fakulta v Martine, Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave, Martin, Slovenská republika

Introduction: If a cardiac mass is a tumor, its aetiology can be often determined by considering the age of the patient, location and tissue characterisation by non-invasive imaging echocardiography, a golden standard for detecting and diagnosing the cardiac tumor. Diagnosing cardiac tumors is challenging, because the presentation of clinical features is based on location, size, type of the tumor or extent of infiltration into the neighboring tissue. Cardiac myxomas comprise the majority part of primary heart tumors.

Objective: The purpose of this retrospective study is to define and describe the characteristic and behaviour of cardiac myxomas on a large group of patients.

Methodology: The patient databases at the First Department of Internal Medicine in Martin, The Central Slovak Institute for Cardiac and Vascular Diseases in Banska Bystrica, and the National Slovak Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases in Bratislava were searched to identify patients with benign tumors of the heart seen during the 5-year period between 2011 and 2016. Forty-one patients with primary cardiac myxomas were identified and their medical records reviewed for details pertaining to presenting symptoms, staging modalities, treatment approaches, and outcomes.

Results: Most of the patients are diagnosed with echocardiography. The occurrence of the tumor is higher in the female population. The most common presenting symptoms are dyspnea, chest pain, or pain and paraesthesia of the limbs.

Conclusions: The early diagnosis and appropriate treatment is often curative, with very low risk of recurrence. Postoperative survival is high.

Keywords: myxoma; symptom; diagnosis; surgical resection

Published: January 1, 2018  Show citation