Cardiac papillary fibroelastomas. Two-dimensional echocardiographic recognition

Papillary fibroelastomas are benign tumors of the heart and are most often incidental findings at cardiac surgery or autopsy. Rarely, symptoms or even sudden death can occur. We report two cases of cardiac papillary tumors diagnosed by two-dimensional echocardiography and successfully excised. One patient was asymptomatic and had a 1- by 1cm papilloma of the mitral valve. The other patients had intermittent chest pains and diaphoresis associated with a 1.5-by 1-cm aortic valve papilloma.