[Atrial myxomas--echophonocardiographic characteristics]

Myxomas (MY) of the atria are benign tumors of the heart usually originated from the interatrial septum. Moving of these tumors into the blood stream cause obstruction of the atrio-ventricular valves and appearance of pathological sounds and murmurs. The main goal of this study is analysis of echophonocardiographic examinations in 4 patients with left atrial myxomas and in one patient with right atrial myxoma. In all the cases, the oval tumor masses with diastolic movements from the atrium towards the ventricle and obstruction of the atrial ventricular ostium were clearly visualized on two-dimensional echocardiography (2D). Simultaneous M-mod echocardilographic and phonocardiographic examinations showed individual phases of myxoma movement and occurrence of sounds. In the patients with left atrial myxoma, echophonocardiography documented the splitting of the first sound (0.05-0.06 sek), protomesosystolic murmur, occurrence of tumor "hit" in the early diastole (0.08-0.11 sec after second heart sound) and a presystolic murmur above the tricuspid valve were found. In all the patients, surgical removal of myxoma was successfully performed followed by disappearance of the symptoms and pathological sounds, which was confirmed on both echocardiogram and phonocardiograms.