[Echocardiographic diagnosis of cardiac tumors]

Primary tumors of the heart are uncommon lesions that can mimic any other type of cardiovascular disease, so such tumors were rarely diagnosed before autopsy until the 1950's. Recent advances in echocardiography have enabled rapid and precise diagnosis of cardiac tumors to be made noninvasively. In diagnosing cardiac tumors by echocardiography, we must recognize fully the anatomical features of the four chambers of the heart. Cardiac tumors can be differentiated from other intracavitary mass lesions and ultrasonic artifacts. In this paper we described the echocardiographic features of cardiac tumors and their differential diagnosis. Present methods cardiac surgery have made the excision of cardiac tumors a safe therapeutic procedure providing an early and precise diagnosis of the cardiac tumor is made by echocardiography.