What Looks Like a Clot But Is Not a Clot?: Cardiac Leiomyosarcoma Mimicking Pulmonary Embolism

Orly Leiva; Parker Hollingsworth; Vasvi Singh; Xiaohua Qian; Ron Blankstein; Muthiah Vaduganathan

doi:10.1016/j.jaccas.2020.08.018

What Looks Like a Clot But Is Not a Clot?: Cardiac Leiomyosarcoma Mimicking Pulmonary Embolism

JACC Case Rep. 2020 Oct 21;2(12):1966-1968. doi: 10.1016/j.jaccas.2020.08.018. eCollection 2020 Oct.

Authors

Orly Leiva¹, Parker Hollingsworth¹, Vasvi Singh², Xiaohua Qian³, Ron Blankstein², Muthiah Vaduganathan²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
² Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
³ Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.

Abstract

Primary cardiac tumors in the right ventricular outflow tract are often misdiagnosed as pulmonary embolism due to rarity and inadequate imaging characterization. Multimodality imaging offers advantages and facilitates subsequent diagnostics and management. We present a case of a woman with suspected submassive pulmonary embolism who was found to have pleomorphic leiomyosarcoma. (Level of Difficulty: Intermediate.).

Keywords: CT, computed tomography; PA, pulmonary artery; RV, right ventricle; RVOT, right ventricular outflow tract; cardiac magnetic resonance; echocardiography; right ventricle.