ABSTRACT
Primary tumors of the heart are infrequent, often asymptomatic, and much less common than metastatic tumors (20-50-fold less common), with an incidence of less than 0.03% in large autopsy series.1 Over 75% of cardiac tumors are benign and present with a variety of non-specific clinical signs and symptoms that overlap with many other cardiovascular and systemic disorders. Symptoms are associated with size, location, mobility, propensity to cause intracardiac obstruction or valve incompetence, precipitate arrhythmias or conduction abnormalities, embolize (tumor fragments or clot on its surface) or cause constitutional symptoms. They remain an important consideration in the differential diagnosis of embolism (systemic or pulmonic), congestive heart failure, arrhythmias or conduction defects and syncope. The most common presenting complaints at presentation are: dyspnea (42%); acute embolic event (25%); and chest pain (22%). Notably 64% of patients presented with New York Heart Association (NYHA) class III/IV.2
