BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Embolic events have long been thought to occur in patients with cardiac tumors secondary to embolization of tumor fragments; however, there are no large studies examining the epidemiology and occurrence of embolism in this group of patients. METHODS From 1957 to 2006, 323 consecutive patients with primary cardiac tumors were treated surgically at our institution. Of the...

Background: Cardiac paraganglioma is a rare entity of an uncommon neuroendocrine tumor. Clinically, non-secreting tumors are often diagnosed because of their growth effects, secreting tumors present symptoms related to catecholamine. Correct diagnosis of a paraganglioma can be reached by biochemical investigations and imaging. Surgical resection is the treatment of choice and has to be planned ...

Contrary to primary malignant cardiac tumors, metastatic tumors of the heart are relatively common. Cardiac metastases are usually the immediate cause of death in about one-third of such cases. They may cause cardiac failure, pericardial effusion and arrhythmia, with cardiac failure being the most common cause of death as a result of restrictive ventricular inflow and outflow tract obstruction,...

Cachexia is a common complication in cancer patients, which dramatically reduces quality of life and survival. In contrast to the well-studied feature of skeletal muscle loss, alterations in cardiac muscle are unclear. Recently, we reported that heart contractile function was significantly impaired in mice with colon-26 (C26) tumors, a widely used rodent model of cancer cachexia. In the present...

Primary cardiac tumors are rare in all ages. Their reported prevalence ranges from 0.001 to 0.03 percent in autopsy series. 25 percent of primary cardiac tumors are considered to be malignant, the majority of which are sarcomas. On account of the late presentation of symptoms in malignant heart masses, finding locally infiltrative tumors or systemically widespread cases at initial presentation ...

Cabergoline (CAB) is widely used for the medical treatment of pituitary tumors, particularly those associated with hormone hypersecretion. Whether treatment with CAB is associated with an increased risk of clinically relevant cardiac valve disease in patients with pituitary tumors is still debated. In most studies, CAB has been found not associated with an increased risk of significant valvulop...

primary cardiac sarcomas are rare clinical entities with an incidence rate of 0.0001% in collected autopsy series and are regarded as very aggressive tumors. we herein describe a 21-year-old woman presenting with syncope, dyspnea, and abdominal distention. she suffered from massive ascites, plural effusion, and liver congestion demonstrated by abdominal sonography and chest x-ray. transthoracic...

Common causes of right sided intra-cardiac atrial masses include primary cardiac tumors (atrial myxoma), atrial thrombus, tumor thrombus with hepatocellular or other thoracoabdominal cancers and metastatic lesions. Invasion of atria by gastrointestinal tumors is rare and that with esophageal ones seldom observed. Esophageal cancers rather present with dysphagia, odynophagia or systemic symptoms...

INTRODUCTION Pierre Robin syndrome is a congenital condition of facial abnormalities in humans. The three main features are: cleft palate, retrognathia and glossoptosis. Rarely heart tumors are associated with syndromes, mostly are isolated. CASE REPORT In this presentation we describe a 3-weeks-old girl with Pierre-Robin syndrome and giant left ventricle tumor, diagnosed initially by transth...