A Case Report of the Recurrence of a Rare Cardiac Low-Grade Fibromyxoid Sarcoma and Mortality

Abstract

As the majority of cardiac tumors are benign, malignant tumors may be easily missed. The case presented here was a female with complaints of dyspnea who was diagnosed with a left atrial mass of regular shape. After surgical excision with a pre-diagnosis of hemangioendothelioma in the frozen-section, the operation finished with mitral valve replacement. The pathological diagnosis from the immunohistochemical examination was of low-grade fibromyxoid-sarcoma. At three months postoperatively, the patient was re-hospitalized with dyspnea. Echocardiography detected a giant mass in the left atrium, 45 x 24 mm in size. The hemodynamic collapse resulted in mortality. The idea that cardiac tumors are more frequently benign causes malignant masses to be overlooked. With the perspective of an internal medicine specialist, the characteristics of each cardiac tumor should be evaluated with both clinical and imaging methods before the cardiac surgery.

Keywords

• cardiac tumor
• fibromyxoid sarcoma; myxofibrosarcoma.