Chest
Volume 66, Issue 2, August 1974, Pages 207-209
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SELECTED REPORTS
Cineradiographic Recognition of Papillary Muscle Calcification

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Calcification of the posteromedial papillary muscle secondary to infarction is reported. Despite the frequency of papillary muscle infarction, radiographic observation of calcification has not been described previously in the literature. We suspect that with the increased cineangiographic evaluation of coronary artery disease this finding will be appreciated with greater frequency.

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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...
  • RobertsWC 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)

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health Grant No. HE-5790 from the National Heart and Lung Institute.

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