Acute Coronary Syndrome or Right Atrial Cardiac Myxoma? An Atypical Presentation

The size and location of cardiac tumors determine how patients present with signs of heart failure due to diminished cardiac output within the circulatory system. Poor cardiac output presents with signs of heart failure, which include pulmonary edema, lower extremity edema, jugular venous distention, dyspnea, orthopnea and can be insidious in onset. Vital signs on presentation can often be abnormal and patients may present hemodynamically unstable. We present a case of a female who presented to the emergency room after experiencing a sudden onset of substernal, pressure-like chest pain while sleeping. Vital signs on presentation were stable with no evidence of heart failure symptoms as listed above. Cardiac catheterization showed patent coronary arteries but was found to have a 5.8 x 4.7 x 3.5 cm hypervascular cardiac myxoma located in the right atrium. Instead of a typical heart failure presentation, as any space-occupying mass would decrease the effective cardiac output, the patient presented with angina. During the procedure, the mass was noted to be perfused by the left circumflex artery, creating coronary steal phenomenon, shifting blood away from the coronary arteries and into the mass, causing ischemic anginal pain. The patient ultimately underwent surgical excision of the lesion and her anginal symptoms resolved.