Cardiac Tumors
Cardiac tumors are abnormal growths in the heart or heart valves. There are many types of cardiac tumors known but cardiac tumors are generally rare in occurrence. Two types of cardiac tumors can be seen:
Malignant Tumors: which are cancerous.
Benign Tumors: which are noncancerous.
Tumors that begin growing in the heart and stay there are called primary tumors.
Most cardiac tumors are benign. But, even benign tumors can cause problems because of their size and location. Sometimes, small pieces of tumor fall into the bloodstream and are carried to distant blood vessels and get in the way of blood flow to vital organs which are called as embolism.
Types of Cardiac tumors:
· Primary tumors: best example of primary tumor is myxoma. Mostly people effect with primary tumor only. Mostly these are benign tumors. Other types of benign primary tumors are papillary fibroelastomas, fibromas, rhabdomyomas, hemangiomas, teratomas, lipomas, paragangliomas and pericardial cysts. Malignant primary tumors include pericardial mesothelioma, primary lymphoma and sarcoma.
· Secondary tumors are much more common than primary tumors. Tumors that start in another part of the body and move to the heart (metastasize) are called secondary tumors.
Symptoms:Shortness of breath, lightheadedness or a cough. The inflammation may cause a fever, and the patient may have joint pain or not feel well.
Clinical Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine journal welcomes all the articles related to cardiac tumors.
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