Clinical presentation of cardiac myxoma in a Singapore national cardiac centre

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Cardiac myxoma is the most common cardiac tumour. In this study, we summarise our 17-year experience with the clinical presentation of cardiac myxoma at National Heart Centre Singapore, Singapore. METHODS Between January 2000 and December 2016, retrospective data was reviewed for all consecutive patients who underwent surgical resection of cardiac myxoma. Patients’ clinical characteristics were reviewed and described. RESULTS A total of 67 (18 male, 49 female; mean age 53.1 ± 13.5 years) patients underwent cardiac myxoma resection. There were 19 (28.4%) patients with asymptomatic cardiac myxoma. There were no significant differences in gender; body habitus and myxoma size; and haemoglobin, white blood cell or platelet counts between patients with symptomatic and asymptomatic myxoma. However, the number of asymptomatic cardiac myxomas seemed to follow an increasing trend from 19.4% (period 2000–2008) to 36.1% (period 2009–2016), suggestive of an ‘era effect’. CONCLUSION In our study, a majority of patients were women, with a wide age range of 18–78 years. The diagnosis of asymptomatic cardiac myxoma was present in 28.4% of patients, with an increasing trend for incidence over the years. This is possibly due to increased opportunistic screening (with electrocardiography and clinical examination) as well as higher usage of medical imaging.