Left atrial myxoma mimicking severe mitral stenosis and severe pulmonary hypertension

Abstract

Cardiac myxomas are the most commonly encountered benign intracardiac tumors. Although the left atrium is the most commonly involved in majority of cases, myxoma can arise in any cardiac chamber. We present the case of a 53-year-old female with background hypertension, who presented with the features of heart failure and found to have large left atrial myxoma mimicking severe mitral stenosis and severe pulmonary hypertension. She had the excision of the myxoma mass. The case illustrates that atrial myxoma is the diagnosis to keep in view as an occasional cause of cardiac murmur even in a society with a high prevalence of rheumatic valvular heart disease and cardiomyopathies.