Highlights the importance of careful physical examination in differentiating cardiac myxoma from rheumatic heart disease in patients presenting with systemic embolization.
Supports considering rare tumors in atypical embolic cases; hypothesis-generating and should not yet change practice.
A case of left atrial myxohemangioendothelioma, diagnosed ante mortem by removing a tumor embolus to the bifurcation of the aorta, is reported. The patient had been misdiagnosed as having had rheumatic heart disease with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation and embolization to the right middle cerebral artery. In retrospect, because of the characteristics of the second heart sound and absence of an opening snap, a rheumatic etiology should have been questioned. The literature regarding embolization of atrial myxomas has been reviewed.
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Silverman et al. (1962) studied this question.
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