Journal of the Korean Society of Echocardiography  2000;8(1):98-102

A Case of Cardiac Metastasis to Left Atrium from Large Cell Carcinoma of the Lung.

So Hyun LEE 1 ; Gyung Won PARK ; Hye Jung YEOM ; Gil Ja SHIN ; Hong Geun JO ; See Hoon PARK

Affiliations

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Keywords

Cardiac metastasis; Left atrium; Lung cancer

Country

Republic of Korea

Language

Korean

Abstract

Metastatic tumors to the heart are far more frequent than primary tumors of the heart. Cardiac metastasis may be detected up to 30 percent of patients with fatal lung cancers. Metastatic cancer to the heart is difficult to suspect. Where cardiac metastasis is diagnosed ante-mortem, signs and symptoms of the primary cancer are usually the presenting features and the presence of cardiac involvement is often incidentally detected. We experienced a case of 35-year-old woman with metastatic lung cancer invading the left atrium via pulmonary vein, which was not proved pathologically. She presented with hemoptysis and chest pain. Transthoracic echocardiography demonstrated massive cardiac infiltration with tumor and decreased cardiac wall motion, correlating with the chest CT findings, which were also remarkable for the presence of intracardiac mass and direct invasion to adherent pericardium, pulmonary vein and left atrium. We suggest that careful examination of 2D echocardiography can be noninvasive and valuable tool for diagnosis of metastatic cancer to the heart.