Paraganglioma of the carotid body and intrapericardium

A 65-year-old Japanese woman with an intrapericardial tumor and neck tumor was admitted to our hospital. Intrapericardial tumor had not been resected because of massive bleeding from the hypervascular tumor and its invasion into the pericardium, ascending aorta, and pulmonary artery. The neck tumor had been successfully resected, and paraganglioma was pathologically diagnosed. Abnormal accumulation in the intrapericardial tumor was seen with ¹²³I-metaiodobenzylguanidine scintigraphy. Moreover, gene mutation of succinate dehydrogenase type D was found. Finally, paraganglioma of the carotid body and intrapericardium was diagnosed. <Learning objective: Cardiac paraganglioma (PGL) and simultaneous carotid body and cardiac PGL is exceedingly rare. We experienced a case of intrapericardial tumor and carotid body tumor, evaluated by histological examination of the surgical specimen of the carotid body tumor and multimodal imaging including ¹²³I-metaiodobenzylguanidine scintigraphy, and genetic analysis of the succinate dehydrogenase gene. The final diagnosis was type 1 PGLs of both the carotid body and intrapericardium.>.