[Contribution of nuclear magnetic resonance in right atrial angiosarcoma. Apropos of a case]

A 25-year old female patient was admitted to hospital for respiratory failure with pulmonary miliary. Subsequently, clinical signs of pericardial tamponade developed. Echocardiography showed a tumour of the right atrium. Malignancy of the tumour was strongly suspected on the basis of magnetic resonance findings. At surgery, the tumour could not be removed and multiple biopsies showed that it was an angiosarcoma with metastases in the lymph nodes and the lungs, the latter presenting as carcinomatous miliary. This case is of interest because of the unusual way the tumour was discovered with a possible alternative diagnosis of cardiac tuberculoma, and because of the usefulness of magnetic resonance imaging to diagnose cardiac tumours and evaluate the extension of those which are malignant.