Staged surgery for advanced cardiac intimal sarcoma involving the right atrium and the inferior vena cava

A cardiac intimal sarcoma mimicking infective endocarditis

Primary malignant cardiac tumors are rare and usually misdiagnosed because they can mimic more common intracardiac lesions, therefore, in clinical practice it is important to always consider even uncommon diseases in order to avoid delayed diagnosis and to plan the most appropriate therapeutic strategy in a timely fashion. We report a case of a 73-year-old man with clinical signs and imaging findings (echocardiography) suggesting infective bacterial endocarditis of the mitral valve. However, intraoperative evaluation raised suspicion that the mitral lesions had a different nature. Surgical removal of the mass was performed, and the final correct diagnosis was made through pathologic examination, revealing a mitral valve sarcoma thus allowing for the beginning of specific oncological treatment.

Case report: The diagnostic challenge of primary cardiac intimal sarcoma

Primary cardiac intimal sarcoma, an extremely rare cardiac tumor subtype, is often mis-diagnosed owing to its rarity and non-specific clinical and radiological features. We report a case of cardiac intimal sarcoma mimicking atrial myxoma in which the clinical presentation and multimodality imaging are described in detail, and diagnostic challenges are highlighted.