Rhabdomyosarcoma of the left atrium.

A woman, aged 60 years, was admitted to the Royal Free Hospital with a history of severe diarrhoea and vomiting, with blood in the stools for one week. For two years she had been in poor health with episodes of giddiness, blurred vision, loss of consciousness, and numerous falls; six months previously she had been admitted to another hospital with "pyrexia of unknown origin". Relevant signs in the cardiovascular system at that time were persistent systolic and transient diastolic murmurs at the apex. Screening of the chest revealed left atrial enlargement, and the X-ray film (Fig. 1) showed an opacity within the heart shadow