Highlights the potential of computerized tomography as a non-invasive imaging modality for diagnosing left atrial myxoma.
May prompt CT use when echocardiography is inconclusive; hypothesis-generating and requires prospective validation.
Left atrial myxoma can present a difficult diagnostic problem. Bulkley & Hutchins (1979) discuss the subject in detail and point out that atrial myxoma can simulate a variety of cardiac and non-cardiac diseases. Diagnosis in the past has often depended on invasive methods such as angiocardiography. More recently the non-invasive imaging technique of ultrasound has provided an effective method of demonstrating the lesion. The possibility of diagnosing these lesions by computerized tomography has also been raised, but CT of the heart was not very effective with the original body scanners because of the long exposures needed.
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Sutton et al. (1982) studied this question.
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