1),4),6-8) In case of cardiac metastasis, pericardium is most commonly affected structure and the involvement is either the result of direct invasion or lymphatic spread. Epicardium and myocardium is the next frequent site of metastasis and almost exclusively the result of retrograde lymphatic spread.1),4),8) However, lung cancer involving endocardium is extremely rare and usually the result of the Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical hematogenous
seeding from the bloodstream of the heart’s chambers with intracavitary lodging or secondary to diffusion from myocardial metastasis. The literatures reporting on endocardial metastasis of the lung cancer are very scarce. Kasai et al.9) reported the case of lung adenocarcinoma developed a large mass in the ventricular septum, complete Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical atrioventricular block, and obstruction of the left ventricular outflow tract. Che et al.5) reported the case of primary lung carcinoma metastasis to the heart accompanied by an intracavitary pedunculated mass in the LV. Bussani et al.4) reported that, there were no cases of metastasis spreading to the endocardium among the 96 cases of lung adenocarcinoma. Moreover, in case of metastasis involving endocardium, the metastatic lesions involving left ventricle as our patient Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical are very rare and are mainly located in the right ventricle or atrium, because anchorage of cancer cells is www.selleckchem.com/products/ipi-145-ink1197.html favored by the low intracavitary pressure, slower blood flow, and the
lighter contractile strength of the right heart chambers.4) Although echocardiography has definite advantages Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical for evaluating cardiac masses, it is difficult to distinguish malignant metastatic mass from other cardiac masses such as primary cardiac tumor, myxoma, vegetation, or thrombus by echocardiography Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical alone. Comprehensive evaluation of cardiac mass, including use of other imaging modalities (such as CT or MRI) and assessment of the patient’s clinical history and other laboratory finding, may be needed for optimal clinical decision making. Especially, the cardiac MRI is very useful imaging modality for soft-tissue
characterization and frequently used for localizing and analyzing the morphological appearance and infiltration Florfenicol of cardiac and juxta-cardiac structures.10) However, our patient performed the FDG PET-CT instead of cardiac MRI, because PET-CT not only has advantage in the differentiation between benign and malignant lesions of the heart but also can be useful for staging of the lung cancer by detecting the metastatic lesions in other sites, which may be difficult with other imaging modalities. In our case, multi-lobulated, cystic mass was located at the endocardium of LVOT and had connection with myocardium of IVS. This mass was clinically considered as lung cancer metastasis to heart, however, other conditions, such as tumor thrombus or vegetation must be considered as differential diagnosis.