Heart cancer in the writings of the anatomo-clinical School members.

In the 19th century medicine flourished in Paris thanks to the advent of the anatomo-clinical School which introduced new methods of clinical examination and diagnosis. Pathology, auscultation and percussion became a routine in medical practice and paved the way for the rising of specialties such as cardiology and oncology. Heart cancer cases were meticulously described by several physicians and by the end of the century heart carcinoma was a well studied and known entity.

A Case of Sudden Death in Decameron IV.6: Aortic Dissection or Atrial Myxoma?

Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron contains a novella that details the sudden death of a young man called Gabriotto, including a portrayal of the discomfort that the protagonist experienced and a rudimentary autopsy performed by local physicians. The intriguing description of symptoms and pathologies has made it possible to read a 7-century-old case through the modern clinical lens. Thanks to the medical and philological analysis of the text-despite the vast difference between modern and medieval medicine-2 hypothetical diagnoses have emerged: either an aortic dissection or an atrial myxoma.

Benign cardiac tumors: a review.

Tumors of the heart are very uncommon and can occur as primary or secondary metastatic tumors. Metastatic tumors are over 40 times more common than primary cardiac tumors. Primary tumors of the heart are benign in 75% of cases and malignant in 25%. We first reported our institutional experience with all primary cardiac tumors in 2003. Of the 85 patients seen, 17 had malignant tumors (20%) and 68 had benign tumors (80%). These benign tumors and our subsequent experience form the basis of this report.

Myxoma valvulae arteriae pulmonalis described by Rokitansky: medicohistorical and clinicopathological aspects.

The bicentenary of the birth of Rokitansky, the first true descriptive pathologist, was celebrated in February 2004. Rokitansky gathered many and important specimens that are now displayed in the Federal Museum of Pathological Anatomy in Vienna. On examining Rokitansky's collection we found a myxoma of the pulmonary valve of a 70-year-old woman who died in 1833. Cardiac myxomas are rare but are the most frequent primary heart tumors, appearing even less frequently on cardiac valves. Modern histology has confirmed Rokitansky's diagnosis on gross pathology. The good condition of this 171-year-old specimen was surprising. Thus, Rokitansky described the myxoma 75 years before Ribbert's first description of a myxoma in this rare localization.

A lost piece of melanoma history.

The original descriptions of melanoma of the hand, foot, vulva, and metastatic melanoma to the heart and bowel were by Jean Cruveilhier in his Anatomie Pathologique du Corps Humains published between 1829 and 1842. Cruveilhier's descriptions predate publications currently ascribed as being the first case reports of these melanomas. Cruveilhier's atlas of pathology also contains the original descriptions of multiple sclerosis, hypertrophic pyloric stenosis, and gastric ulcers. Cruveilhier's work is well known to book collectors, but his melanoma discoveries have not been cited since Pemberton in 1858. Cruveilhier's case reports are reviewed in addition to a discussion of their significance and historical contexts. Current melanoma scholars will appreciate this lost piece of melanoma history with its early historical discoveries and magnificent illustrations.

Clarence Crafoord and the first successful resection of a cardiac myxoma.

In 1954 Clarence Crafoord, the pioneer Swedish cardiovascular surgeon, removed an intraatrial myxoma for the first time. The patient was a 40-year-old woman with atypical symptoms of mitral stenosis. Follow-up 38 years later finds the patient alive and well. This case represents not only the first extirpation of a cardiac tumor on cardiopulmonary support but also the dawn of open cardiac surgery in Sweden. Others were soon to follow the lead of Crafoord and his team. However, their bold efforts prepared the way for the early diagnosis and facile extirpation of cardiac myxomas. Moreover, this group played an integral part in the development of safe, effective cardiopulmonary perfusion.