Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 13, 2026

High-Resolution Cardiac Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography for Small Animals
Published on: December 16, 2022
Left atrial myxoma on FDG-PET/CT
Olivier Gheysens1, Jasmien Cornillie, Jens-Uwe Voigt
1From the Departments of *Nuclear Medicine, †Rheumatology, ‡Cardiology, and §Radiology, University Hospital Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Abstract:
A 56-year-old woman with rheumatoid factor-positive rheumatoid arthritis underwent FDG-PET/CT because of fatigue, fever, coughing, and weight loss for several months. FDG-PET/CT solely revealed a mildly hypermetabolic hypodense area in the left atrium. Subsequently, transthoracic echocardiography and contrast-enhanced MRI showed a left atrial pedunculated soft tissue mass suggestive for myxoma, with histological confirmation. Myocardial involvement by tumors is rare, and FDG-PET/CT has been very useful for identifying cardiac metastases. However, very few cases have been reported using FDG-PET/CT for detecting primary cardiac tumors, but as shown here, abnormal focal myocardial uptake should trigger further morphological assessment.
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