Right atrial mass assessment by transthoracic echocardiography and cardiac magnetic resonance

CLINICAL UPDATE

Right atrial mass assessment by transthoracic echocardiography and cardiac magnetic resonance

Viviane Tiemi Hotta; James Alberton

Instituto do Coração/Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo - SP - Brazil

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Keywords: Mass, right atrium, echocardiography, resonance.

The patient underwent transthoracic echocardiography (TTE), which disclosed significant left ventricular dysfunction and cystic mass of heterogeneous content on the lateral wall of the right atrium (RA). Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging confirmed the TTE findings. Due to the high probability of thrombus, oral anticoagulation and echocardiographic control were chosen. The patient had refractory heart failure (HF) and died after twenty days of hospitalization. In this case, TTE showed good correlation with the MRI results. In addition to the unusual finding at the TTE, it shows the importance of integration between the imaging methods and the poor prognosis associated with masses found in the RA.

Manuscript received March 22, 2011; revised manuscript received June 14, 2011; accepted June 22, 2011.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  21 Oct 2011
• Date of issue
  Sept 2011