Key result
Solitary RVOT amelanotic melanoma metastasis presents as severe cardiac tamponade and intracardiac obstruction.
Why the study?
Reports of malignant melanoma involving the heart usually describe pigmented forms, but cases of massive cardiac invasion by amelanotic melanoma with obstructive features are rare.
Case Report (n=1)
Amelanotic melanoma can cause tamponade and RVOT obstruction; this case leaves open the spectrum of cardiac melanoma presentations.
Reports of malignant melanoma involving the heart usually describe metastatic spread of pigmented (melanotic) forms of this tumour. We describe, and illustrate, a patient presenting with features related to cardiac tamponade and intracardiac obstruction. Transthoracic echocardiography initially showed a large mass within the right ventricular outflow tract. The full extent of infiltration of this tumour was demonstrated by computed tomography scanning and the specific tumour type by immunohistochemical staining procedures. The case is unusual in relation to the extreme size of this amelanotic melanoma at presentation and the fact that it appears to be a solitary metastasis.
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Dubrey et al. (2008) conducted a case report in Amelanotic melanoma with cardiac invasion (n=1). A patient presented with cardiac tamponade and intracardiac obstruction caused by an unusually large, solitary amelanotic melanoma metastasis in the right ventricular outflow tract.
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