Cardiac failure due to tumour of the left atrium.

of Necropsy Diagnosis: Acute pulmonary cedema, tumour of the left atrium. There was no sign of pericarditis or excess of pericardial fluid. The heart did not seem to be enlarged to any extent. There was a pedunculated papillomatous tumour, shiny and white in colour, arising from the inter-atrial septum of the left atrium and projecting through the mitral orifice into the left ventricle (Fig. 1). It appeared to block completely the mitral valve. There was no evidence of any other cardiac anomaly and the valves were normal. The aorta and pulmonary arteries were normal. The lungs presented the usual appearance of acute pulmonary cedema and the enlarged liver was typical of congestive failure. Although the tumour appeared to have the characteristics of a myxoma, microscopy of sections of the growth showed only necrotic tissue. 326 group.bmj.com on June 25, 2017 Published by http://heart.bmj.com/ Downloaded from