Cardiac masses diagnosis and treatment are a true challenge,although they are infrequently encountered in clinical practice.They encompass a broad set of lesions that include neoplastic(primary and secondary),non-neop...Cardiac masses diagnosis and treatment are a true challenge,although they are infrequently encountered in clinical practice.They encompass a broad set of lesions that include neoplastic(primary and secondary),non-neoplastic masses and pseudomasses.The clinical presentation of cardiac tumors is highly variable and depends on several factors such as size,location,relation with other structures and mobility.The presumptive diagnosis is made based on a preliminary non-invasive diagnostic work-up due to technical difficulties and risks associated with biopsy,which is still the diagnostic gold standard.The findings should always be interpreted in the clinical context to avoid misdiagnosis,particularly in specific conditions(e.g.,infective endocarditis or thrombi).The modern multi-modality imaging techniques has a key role not only for the initial assessment and differential diagnosis but also for management and surveillance of the cardiac masses.Cardiovascular magnetic resonance(CMR)allows an optimal non-invasive localization of the lesion,providing multiplanar information on its relation to surrounding structures.Moreover,with the additional feature of tissue characterization,CMR can be highly effective to distinguish pseudomasses from masses,as well as benign from malignant lesions,with further differential diagnosis of the latter.Although histopathological assessment is important to make a definitive diagnosis,CMR plays a key role in the diagnosis of suspected cardiac masses with a great impact on patient management.This literature review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of cardiac masses,from clinical and imaging protocol to pathological findings.展开更多
The growing number of atrial fibrillation catheter ablation procedures warranted the development of advanced cardiac mapping techniques, such as image integration between electroanatomical map and cardiac computed tom...The growing number of atrial fibrillation catheter ablation procedures warranted the development of advanced cardiac mapping techniques, such as image integration between electroanatomical map and cardiac computed tomography. While scanning the chest before catheter ablation, it is frequent to detect cardiac and extracardiac collateral findings. Most collateral findings are promptly recognized as benign and do not require further attention. However, sometimes clinically relevant collateral findings are detected, which often warrant extra diagnostic examinations or even invasive procedure, and sometimes need to be followed-up over time. Even though reporting and further investigating collateral findings has not shown a clear survival benefit, almost all the working groups providing data on collateral findings reported some collateral findings eventually coming out to be malignancies, sometimes at an early stage. Therefore, there is currently no clear agreement about the right strategy to be followed.展开更多
文摘Cardiac masses diagnosis and treatment are a true challenge,although they are infrequently encountered in clinical practice.They encompass a broad set of lesions that include neoplastic(primary and secondary),non-neoplastic masses and pseudomasses.The clinical presentation of cardiac tumors is highly variable and depends on several factors such as size,location,relation with other structures and mobility.The presumptive diagnosis is made based on a preliminary non-invasive diagnostic work-up due to technical difficulties and risks associated with biopsy,which is still the diagnostic gold standard.The findings should always be interpreted in the clinical context to avoid misdiagnosis,particularly in specific conditions(e.g.,infective endocarditis or thrombi).The modern multi-modality imaging techniques has a key role not only for the initial assessment and differential diagnosis but also for management and surveillance of the cardiac masses.Cardiovascular magnetic resonance(CMR)allows an optimal non-invasive localization of the lesion,providing multiplanar information on its relation to surrounding structures.Moreover,with the additional feature of tissue characterization,CMR can be highly effective to distinguish pseudomasses from masses,as well as benign from malignant lesions,with further differential diagnosis of the latter.Although histopathological assessment is important to make a definitive diagnosis,CMR plays a key role in the diagnosis of suspected cardiac masses with a great impact on patient management.This literature review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of cardiac masses,from clinical and imaging protocol to pathological findings.
文摘The growing number of atrial fibrillation catheter ablation procedures warranted the development of advanced cardiac mapping techniques, such as image integration between electroanatomical map and cardiac computed tomography. While scanning the chest before catheter ablation, it is frequent to detect cardiac and extracardiac collateral findings. Most collateral findings are promptly recognized as benign and do not require further attention. However, sometimes clinically relevant collateral findings are detected, which often warrant extra diagnostic examinations or even invasive procedure, and sometimes need to be followed-up over time. Even though reporting and further investigating collateral findings has not shown a clear survival benefit, almost all the working groups providing data on collateral findings reported some collateral findings eventually coming out to be malignancies, sometimes at an early stage. Therefore, there is currently no clear agreement about the right strategy to be followed.