Giant left atrial myxoma mimicking severe mitral valve stenosis.

We report a case of giant left atrial myxoma in a young patient with clinical manifestation as congestive heart failure attributable to severe mitral valve stenosis. An early clinical and echocardiographic diagnosis was performed and the patient had an optimal outcome with surgery treatment.

Cancer in biopsy-proven giant cell arteritis. A population-based study.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the potential association between giant cell arteritis (GCA) and cancer in a series of consecutive patients diagnosed with biopsy-proven GCA over a 25-year period at the single reference hospital for a well-defined population. METHODS: The case records of all patients diagnosed with biopsy-proven GCA at the Department of Medicine of the Hospital Xeral-Calde (Lugo, Northwest Spain) between January 1, 1981 and December 31, 2005 were reviewed. Information on cancer and cause of death over the extended follow-up was assessed. In all cases the presence of cancer was histologically confirmed. RESULTS: Cancer was found in 39 (15.3%) of the 255 GCA patients. Although 7 (18%) of the 39 patients had cancer either at the time or within the first 12 months after GCA diagnosis, the standardized mortality ratio (SMR) due to cancer in patients with biopsy-proven GCA showed no increase (overall SMR 1.06 [0.65-1.60]; men, 0.81; women, 1.50). The time interval between GCA diagnosis and cancer diagnosis was 5.2+/-3.8 years (median 4.2 years; interquartile range: 3-7 years). When multivariate analysis adjusted by age and sex was performed, only the presence of dysphagia (adjusted hazards ratio (HR)=3.90; P=0.04), abnormal temporal artery on physical examination (adjusted HR=4.61; P=0.04), and anemia at the time of GCA diagnosis (adjusted HR=3.39; P=0.01) were associated with an increased risk of cancer over the extended follow-up. CONCLUSION: The results from this series do not support an overall increase of mortality due to cancer in GCA.