[The usefulness of transesophageal echocardiography in the diagnosis of intracardiac and extracardiac tumors]

Abstract

We studied 18 patients with suspected intrathoracic mass from january 1990 to august 1993. In all patients electrocardiogram, X-ray, transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography were performed. Accordingly, the patients were divided into two groups: I) 8 patients with intracardiac myxoma, and II) 10 patients with no myxomatous tumor. The histopathologic identification of the intracardiac or extracardiac tumor was corroborated in all patients of group I and in only 8 patients of group II. In group I the mean age was 39 years and the female sex was more frequently (75%); with transthoracic and transesophageal approaches the myxoma was found in right atrium in four patients, in left atrium in three, and in the last patient the four chambers were occupied. In group II the mean age was 36 years, and the male sex was predominant (60%). In three patients cardiac tumors were detected by echocardiography, two of them were found in the right cavities (leiomyoma and leiomyosarcoma), in the rest the histologic lineage of the left atrial tumors was not possible to recognize. In the other seven patients with mediastinal tumor the heart was not infiltrated. On the basis of the obtained results we conclude that transthoracic echocardiography permits the identification of the intracardiac tumor; in these patients transesophageal studies give us an additional valuable information about the valves, the site of tumoral implantation and the wall infiltration. Transesophageal approach provides more information about its potential cardiac compression.