Primary cardiac leiomyosarcoma: imaging with 2-D echocardiography, electron beam CT and 1.5-Tesla MR

Abstract

Primary cardiac sarcomas are extremely rare [ 1 Rosai J. Cardiovascular system. In: Rosai Juan, editor. Ackerman's Surgical Pathology. 8th edn. St. Louis: Mosby-Year Book, 1996; 2182–2188. Google Scholar ]. There are only a few case reports concerning the sonography, computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) appearance of cardiac leiomyosarcoma [ 2 Nguyen KT, Mak K, Sanfilippo AJ, Rosen WS, Cheeseman FD. Primary left atrial leiomyosarcoma simulating pulmonary thromboembolism. Can Assoc Radiol J 1994; 45: 48–51. Google Scholar , 3 Antunes MJ, Vanderdonck KM, Andrade CM, Rebelo LS. Primary cardiac leimyosarcoma. Ann Thorac Surg 1991; 51: 999–1001. Google Scholar , 4 Lund JT, Ehman RL, Julsrud PR, Sinak U, Tajik AJ. Cardiac masses: assessment by MR imaging. AJR 1989; 152: 469–473. Google Scholar , 5 Stanford W, Galvin JR, Weiss RM, et al. Ultrafast computed tomography in cardiac imaging: a review. Semin US CT MR 1991; 12: 45–49. Google Scholar ]. In a review of the literature reported by Nguyen et al., only 27 cases (including his own patient) of primary leiomyosarcoma of the heart had been reported [ 2 Nguyen KT, Mak K, Sanfilippo AJ, Rosen WS, Cheeseman FD. Primary left atrial leiomyosarcoma simulating pulmonary thromboembolism. Can Assoc Radiol J 1994; 45: 48–51. Google Scholar ]. Leiomyosarcoma is a highly aggressive and local invasive tumor with mean survival of 6 months from the time of diagnosis, if the patient was not treated [ 3 Antunes MJ, Vanderdonck KM, Andrade CM, Rebelo LS. Primary cardiac leimyosarcoma. Ann Thorac Surg 1991; 51: 999–1001. Google Scholar ]. We present a case of pathologically proved left atrium leiomyosarcoma who received 2-dimensional (2-D) echocardiography, electron beam CT (EBCT) scan and cardiac MRI.