Large mitral valve vegetations in bacterial endocarditis can echocardiographically mimic left atrial myxoma.
Large vegetations may mimic myxoma on echocardiography; case reports leave open reliable noninvasive differentiation.
A patient with Staphylococcus aureus endocarditis is reported whose echocardiogram closely resembled that found in left atrial myxoma. Because of severe mitral incompetence, the valve was replaced using cardiopulmonary bypass and at operation a large 3 cm friable vegetation was found attached to the posterior leaflet of the mitral valve. Histological examination showed changes typical of bacterial endocarditis with no evidence of myxoma.
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Nicholson et al. (1980) studied this question.
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