Masses of the heart: perfusing the "good" from the bad.

n 1951, the feeling of frustration regarding the inadequacy f the antemortem diagnosis of cardiac masses was summaized by Pritchard (1) in a review of tumors of the heart: Tumors of the heart are rarely diagnosed before autopsy. urgical treatment of these neoplasms is virtually unheard f, and the present state of diagnosis is far behind the herapeutic possibilities. Several authors have wholeheartdly subscribed to the view that the diagnosis of cardiac umors is either impossible or a matter of chance. Seen from he threshold of an era of ever bolder cardiac surgery, these umors present a dismal diagnostic prospect.” Considerable