The patient, 66-year-old woman, underwent routine cardiological assessment before chemotherapy for newly diagnosed breast cancer and was found to have mass in the right atrium. She was entirely asymptomatic. A port had been implanted two weeks earlier. Transesophageal echocardiography (Figures and b) and cardiac MRI and CT scans revealed mass, 39 x 23 mm in size, on the lateral wall of the right atrium below the ostium of the inferior vena cava. Contact to the tricuspid valve and the port system could not be excluded. A number of possible diagnoses were considered, including thrombus associated with the port system, primary tumor, and metastasis; each of these would have called for different clinical management. Surgical resection was recommended as the next step by interdisciplinary consensus. Histological examination revealed an atrial myxoma with regressive changes.
Dr. med. Katharina Klee, Prof. Dr. med. Meinrad Gawaz, Prof. Dr. med. Christine Meyer-Zürn Medical Clinic III, Cardiology and Circulatory Diseases, German Heart Competence Center Tübingen, University Hospital Tübingenenkatharina.klee@med.uni-tuebingen.de
Conflict of interest statement The authors state that they have no conflict of interest.
Translated from the original German by Ethan Taub, MD
Cite this as: Klee K, Gawaz M, Meyer-Zürn CS: A right atrial mass in woman with newly diagnosed breast cancer. Dtsch Arztebl Int 2017; 114: 225. DOI: 10.3238 / arztebl.2017.0225
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