Echocardiography is essential for the early diagnosis of cardiac sources of embolism, such as atrial myxoma, in patients presenting with acute stroke.
Myxoma can cause embolic stroke amenable to thrombectomy; leaves open whether echocardiography warrants broader use in young stroke patients.
Myxoma is one of the most common cardiac tumors. It is relatively straightforward to diagnose by echocardiography. Sometimes, It can causes cardiac syncope and thromboembolic events. A woman without comorbidities was admitted to our hospital with stroke symptoms: left-sided hemiplegia and dysarthria. After brain computed tomography (CT) and angio-CT value, she was initially treated with pharmacological thrombolysis. Due to persisting symptoms, cerebral angiography and thrombectomy were then performed. At the end of this procedure, the patient had a complete neurological recovery, but she developed new symptoms, such as dyspnea and orthopnea. Transthoracic echocardiogram and transesophageal echocardiogram showed an atrial mobile mass. Therefore, an urgent cardiac surgery was performed in order to remove the mass. Histological examination confirmed cardiac myxoma. Our experience could show the importance of echocardiography to early diagnosis.
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Tripodi et al. (2020) studied this question.
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