Rare malignant spindle cell sarcoma of the left atrium diagnosed with TEE: A case report

INTRODUCTION: One of the purposes of echocardiography is to determine the nature of a space-occupying lesion. The conventional transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE) is the preferred method for the diagnosis of cardiac space-occupying lesions as it can reveal the baseline information. For patients with poor conditions, however, TTE cannot clearly display the boundary, it has a limited role in determining the nature of the lesions. PATIENT CONCERNS: A 47-year-old woman presented with intermittent fever for 7 days and chest distress/shortness of breath for 5 days. DIAGNOSIS: In our current case, we inferred the nature of space-occupying lesions in the left atrium more accurately using transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) than TTE, which may offer diagnostic evidence for surgical treatment. INTERVENTIONS: The patient underwent surgical resection of the left atrial tumor and reconstruction of the left atrial wall. However, the patient's posterior lobe of the mitral valve was infiltrated by tumor, which was difficult to completely remove. OUTCOMES: Echocardiography was performed 3 months after surgery and the tumor recurred in the posterior lobe of the mitral valve. Although almost all tumors have been removed by surgery, the average survival time is often less than 1 year, as it is difficult to completely remove and easy to relapse with poor prognosis. CONCLUSION: Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) plays a relatively more important role in the determination and differential diagnosis of cardiac space-occupying lesions