Space-occupying lesions of the myocardium: role of two-dimensional echocardiography in detection of cardiac tumors in children.

Four patients with space-occupying myocardial lesions were studied using electronically focused high-resolution two-dimensional echocardiography. In two patients with clusters of high-intensity echoes at various depths on the epicardial surface, histology confirmed the diagnosis of lymphosarcoma, showing patchy, malignant infiltrates of different thickness. The remaining two patients had very different features: the lesions appeared to be intrinsic to the posterior left ventricular wall. One patient who had arrhythmias and a small encapsulated noncontractile mass had a histologically proved rhabdomyoma. In the second patient fibroma was histologically confirmed. In these two patients the position of the lesions was confirmed by angiocardiography. Two-dimensional echocardiography greatly improved delineation of space-occupying cardiac masses and is an accurate method for confirming the presence of such lesions.