Cardioembolic Stroke in Young: A Case of Atrial Myxoma Origin

Stroke is one of the leading causes of mortality and disability. It can be rarely caused by cardiac myxoma. Sometimes stroke may be its first clinical manifestation. Here we report a case of posterior circulation stroke in left atrial myxoma. A 45-year-old female patient presented with a history of...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Curēus (Palo Alto, CA) CA), 2022-08, Vol.14 (8)
Main Authors: Salam, Hiba, Reddy, Mohith K, Ganaraja, V H, V, Sashikala, Kodapala, Suresha
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Brain research
Cardiology
Case reports
Etiology
Fainting
Headaches
Hepatitis
Internal Medicine
Magnetic resonance imaging
Metastasis
Neurology
Research centers
Stroke
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Stroke is one of the leading causes of mortality and disability. It can be rarely caused by cardiac myxoma. Sometimes stroke may be its first clinical manifestation. Here we report a case of posterior circulation stroke in left atrial myxoma. A 45-year-old female patient presented with a history of recurrent episodes of dizziness and headache of three months duration. Neurological examination showed impaired tandem gait. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain revealed infarction in the left posteroinferior cerebellar hemisphere. Echocardiography of the patient revealed a large left atrial mass suggestive of atrial myxoma and an ejection fraction of 60%.The patient was operated on for atrial myxoma two days after the diagnosis, and histopathology confirmed the diagnosis. Postoperatively she remained well and was managed on anti-platelet drugs. Atrial myxoma should be considered as a possible differential while evaluating a case of cardioembolic stroke, and echocardiography detects the presence of an atrial myxoma. It is also essential that atrial myxomas are managed early to prevent recurrent strokes.
ISSN:2168-8184
2168-8184
DOI:10.7759/cureus.27890