Cardiac Metastases from Hepatocelluar Carcinoma-Can It be Identified Early? | Chapter 14 | Emerging Research in Medical Sciences Vol. 2
A number of diseases may cause right a trial mass. Primary cardiac tumors range from0.002 to 0.25%. Intra cardiac manifestation and pulmonary embolism of hepato cellular carcinoma (HCC) is a very rare finding and uncommon even at autopsy. Here we describe the case of a 32-year-old Asian man who was referred for shortness of breath lasting for a month, along with unproductive cough. He was a manual laborer with a history of diabetes, alcoholism, and smoking. Clinically he was diagnosed as having pulmonaryembolism. Echocardiogram showed a mass in the right atrium. Magnetic resonance imaging showed that he had a large mass in the right atrium extending down into the inferior vena cava. Further evaluation showed that he had chronic liver disease with portal hypertension and was hepatitis B surface antigen-positive, indicating hepatitis B infection. He underwent excision of the mass, and the pathological report showed metastasis of HCC with multiple vascular emboli in the lungs. As this i...