[Papillary cardiac fibroelastoma. An unusual presentation].

BACKGROUND: Papillary fibroelastoma is a rare benign tumor characterized morphologically since first being described in 1976. Nevertheless, this tumor can be presented with a variety of clinical manifestations, making diagnosis challenging for the physician. There are no gender or age preferences but it is diagnosed by site of presentation along with macro- and microscopic characteristics.

CASE REPORT: We report the case of a male patient with a history of type 2 diabetes mellitus and arterial hypertension who was admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of ischemic heart disease accompanied by sustained ventricular tachycardia. Echocardiogram reported degree I diastolic dysfunction, apical ventricular aneurysm, and unusual apical tumor of the septum and left ventricle.

DISCUSSION: Primary heart tumors have an incidence of 0.0017%. The most common symptoms are chest pain, syncope, dyspnea and arrhythmias. Diagnosis is accomplished incidentally by echocardiography, which is usually carried out for other reasons. Surgical procedure of choice is total tumor resection along with valve repair or replacement, if necessary, and in some cases cardiac endothelium resection and repair, with or without pericardium patch replacement.

CONCLUSIONS: Papillary fibroelastoma is rare but is a recognized cause of embolic phenomena. Rapid identification followed by surgical resection is curative, precise and well tolerated by the patient.