Echocardiography and Tumor Invasion of the Heart

To the Editor.— The ability of echocardiography to delineate intracardiac structures has made it useful in detecting abnormal masses within the chambers of the heart. In the last two years, echocardiography has been used to diagnose the presence of left 1 and right 2 atrial myxomas, as well as a right ventricular tumor. 3 The use of this technique to detect pericardial effusion is also a standard procedure. 1 However, echocardiographic detection of a tumor invasion of the heart resulting in constrictive pericarditis has not, to our knowledge, been previously reported. Report of a Case.— A 64-year-old man was admitted to the hospital with metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the lung on June 23, 1975. His chief complaint was progressive shortness of breath. The original diagnosis was made in August 1974 by a needle aspiration biopsy. Radiation therapy (5,000 rads) originally produced evidence of tumor shrinkage, but further therapy was discontinued