Primary Sarcoma of the Heart, With Report of Additional Case

Primary sarcoma of the heart is a clinical condition which cannot be diagnosed with certainty during life, as it presents no characteristic signs or symptoms. Babcock,1states that the usual symptoms are simply those of heart weakness, with irregular and accelerated pulse; pain, if the pericardium is affected, and murmur, if an opening is obstructed. It is difficult to say with absolute certainty just how many cases of primary cardiac sarcoma have been reported, as the actual pathology in some of the earlier cases must always remain in doubt. It is very probable that some of them were secondary to overlooked foci. In the following list of cases which I have collected from literature, I include those cases only in which the diagnosis of sarcoma seems to be unquestioned. Bodenheimer2collected seven cases up to 1877, including the five