Chest
SELECTED REPORTSCineradiographic Recognition of Papillary Muscle Calcification
Section snippets
CASE REPORT
A 53-year-old white man was in excellent health until 1969 when he experienced a ten-minute episode of severe precordial pain associated with emotional stress. He did not seek medical attention then but one month later, during the course of a routine physical examination, his personal physician heard a new heart murmur. No further evaluation was undertaken at that time.
The patient remained well until the fall of 1971 when he developed bacterial endocarditis, characterized by fevers, sweats,
DISCUSSION
Calcification in the apices of the papillary muscles of the ventricle is seen by the pathologist infrequently, and then usually in the older population. It is almost always visible solely by microscope and is presumed to represent a “degenerative” change secondary to aging.1 Radiographically visible calcification in papillary muscles following infarction has not been reported previously.2 Because of the limitations inherent in reproducing single frames of cineangiograms it is difficult to
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We wish to thank Dr. Dulaney Glenn for referring this patient for evaluation and Mrs. Karen Kaylor for her aid in the preparation of this manuscript.
REFERENCES (2)
- Roberts WC, Personal...
- et al.
Left ventricular papillary muscles: Description of the normal and a survey of conditions causing them to be abnormal
Circulation
(1972)
Cited by (3)
M mode and cross-sectional echocardiographic recognition of fibrosis and calcification of the mitral valve chordae and left ventricular papillary muscles
1982, The American Journal of CardiologyEchocardiographic diagnosis of papillary muscle calcification
1982, Journal of Clinical UltrasoundCalcification in an intramyocardial mass lesion: Isolated calcification of an accessory papillary muscle in a patient with mitral prolapse
1978, Catheterization and Cardiovascular Diagnosis
This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health Grant No. HE-5790 from the National Heart and Lung Institute.