Two dimensional echocardiography in evaluation of right atrial masses: five cases in pediatric patients

Five unusual cases of a right atrial mass in children are described to illustrate the very valuable contribution that two dimensional echocardiographic examinations can bring to both the initial diagnosis and the subsequent management of patients with these findings. One patient had a large benign hemangioendothelioma of the right atrium. Two infants had extension of a Wilms' tumor from the kidney by way of the inferior vena cava to the right atrium. A fourth patient, an 8 year old girl, had no cardiac disease, and manifested Staphylococcus aureus endocarditis of the tricuspid valve with a large pedunculated mass and subsequent pulmonary embolus. A fifth patient, a premature infant with a central hyperalimentation catheter in the right atrium, had a large thrombus on the catheter that was successfully eradicated with urokinase-induced thrombolysis. Two dimensional echocardiography provides real time imaging of the entire right atrium, interatrial septum, inferior and superior venae cavae and tricuspid orifice and hence is valuable in the diagnosis and management of these clinical problems.