UCSF

Background

Cardiac tumors are uncommon in the pediatric population. When present, cardiac manifestations stem from the tumor causing inflow or outflow obstruction. While common in adults, cardiac myxomas presenting with generalized systemic illness or peripheral emboli especially with no cardiac or neurological symptoms are rare in children.

Case presentation

We report a case of a previously healthy adolescent girl who presented with a 6-month history of constitutional symptoms and a purpuric rash with no cardiac or neurologic symptoms, found to have a cardiac myxoma.

Conclusions

A vasculopathic rash in the setting of atrial myxomas has been shown be a precursor to significant morbidity and mortality. Due to the rarity of this entity, the time elapsed from onset of non-cardiac symptoms until diagnosis of a myxoma is usually prolonged with interval development of irreversible neurological sequelae and death reported in the literature. Therefore, we highlight the importance of including cardiac myxomas and paraneoplastic vasculitis early in the differential diagnosis for patients presenting with a purpuric rash and systemic symptoms.