Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Case Reports
. 2015 Apr 15:2015:bcr2014209119.
doi: 10.1136/bcr-2014-209119.

Arrhythmias are not to blame for all cardiac syncope patients: left atrial myxoma causing syncope in a middle-aged man

Ali Raza Rajani  1 , Reem Naif Muaz  1 , Pushpa Rani Govindaswamy  1 , Muhammad Hamid Mian  1
Affiliations
Case Reports

Arrhythmias are not to blame for all cardiac syncope patients: left atrial myxoma causing syncope in a middle-aged man

Ali Raza Rajani et al. BMJ Case Rep. .

Abstract

A 47-year-old man presented with a history of syncope that lasted for 3 min and was not accompanied by jerky movement of limbs or incontinence. After regaining consciousness, he felt generalised weakness. There was no history of chest pain or palpitation. ECG showed normal sinus rhythm. All blood investigations were normal. Transthoracic echocardiography showed a large multilobulated echo dense mass in the left atrium. The mass was prolapsing through the mitral valve during diastole. Transoesophageal echocardiography verified these findings and also showed the stalk of the mass attached to the interatrial septum near the fossa ovalis. The mass was highly suggestive of myxoma. The patient underwent surgical resection of the mass and histopathology confirmed the diagnosis of left atrial myxoma.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(A) Transthoracic echocardiography in parasternal long-axis view and (B) apical long-axis view showing prolapsing of the left atrial myxoma.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Transoesophageal echocardiography showing stalk of the mass attached to interatrial septum above fossa ovalis.
Figure 3
Figure 3
(A) Haemorrhagic external surface of myxoma and (B) histopathology of mass showing myxoid cell and stellate cell.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Lam KY, Dickens P, Chan AC et al. . Tumors of the heart. A 20-year experience with a review of 12,485 consecutive autopsies. Arch Pathol Lab Med 1993;117:1027–31. - PubMed
    1. McAllister HA, Hall RJ, Cooley DA. Tumors of the heart and pericardium. Curr Probl Cardiol 1999;24:57–116. 10.1016/S0146-2806(99)80001-2 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Yin Z, Kirschner LS. The Carney complex gene PRKAR1A plays an essential role in cardiac development and myxomagenesis. Trends Cardiovasc Med 2009;19:44–9. 10.1016/j.tcm.2009.04.005 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Burke AP, Tazelaar H, Gomez-Roman JJ, et al. Benign tumours of pluripotent mesenchyme. In: Travis WD, Brambilla E, Muller-Hermelink HK, Curtis CH. (eds.) Tumors of the heart. WHO Publications Center Albany, NY 12210 (USA). Lyon: IARC, 2004:260–5.
    1. Reynen K. Cardiac myxomas review article. N Engl J Med 1995;333:1610–17. 10.1056/NEJM199512143332407 - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms