[Sudden death from lipomatous hamartoma of the heart]

The authors report a case of a patient arrived at their observation in cardiogenic shock. The ECG showed extreme bradycardia refractory to resuscitation manoeuvres. The autopsy showed a lipomatous hamartoma in the interatrial septum. The lipomatous hamartoma is a primitive cardiac tumor, very rare, with an usually asymptomatic course but with severe prognosis. The authors emphasize that clinical presentation can be aspecific and resembling several other diseases, and early identification can be achieved only by 2D echo-cardiography or nuclear magnetic resonance imaging.