The clinical value and features of echocardiograghy in diagnosis of pediatric cardiac rhabdomyoma

Objective:To assess the value of echocardiograghy in diagnosing pediatric cardiac rhabdomyoma by detecting the tumor location,size,motion,morphometric,hemodynamic features and cardiac function changes.Methods:Cases were identified by searching the pediatric cardiac surgery records.The data of echocardiograghy information and diagnostic features of 13 children were reviewed.Results:Hyperecho or homogenous echo(single in 5 or multiple in 8) in different cavity of the heart were found in all cases.Echocardiograghy showed the right ventricular(RV) masses in 7 cases,the left ventricular(LV) masses in 3 casses,both RV and LV masses in 2 cases,and 1 case involving LV,RV,left atrium.Among the cases,1 case with ventricular septal defect,3 cases with patent foramen ovale,2 cases with right ventricular out troct obstruction and 1 case with right ventriculav inflow tract obstruction were detected.There were 3 cases with cardiac arrhythmias and other 3 cases with heart failure.Conclusions:Echocardiograghy has many advantages including non-invasive,repetitive,high accuracy and its diagnosis sensitivity is higher than MRI.As thus,cardiac ultrasound is preferred for clinical diagnosing cardiac rhabdomyoma,especially for children patients,but echocardiograghy can not give the final diagnosis results,it must relay on pathological histology diagnosis.