Background: Cardiac calcified amorphous tumors (CATs) are rare non-neoplastic formations containing amorphous fibrinous material and calcifications. In our research, we present the case of a 42-year-old male patient who developed, during his 6-months monitoring for coronary artery disease, a left ventricular (LV)
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Background: Cardiac calcified amorphous tumors (CATs) are rare non-neoplastic formations containing amorphous fibrinous material and calcifications. In our research, we present the case of a 42-year-old male patient who developed, during his 6-months monitoring for coronary artery disease, a left ventricular (LV) CAT raising diagnostic challenges.
Methods: To gather additional information on CATs, we researched the international medical literature for scientific articles published with the full text in English, on PubMed, ResearchGate, Clarivate, and Google Scholar between 2020 and 2024.
Results: Compared to most described cases, our patient was a young male, without mitral annular calcification or chronic renal disease, but he was suffering from chronic peripheral and coronary artery disease, and genetic testing revealed a higher risk for thromboembolic events. During 6 months, he developed a LV CAT of 4.5/3.5/3 cm. Although we found in the medical literature 16 case reports of patients with CAT, only six authors could specify a precise postoperative evolution of the CAT, most of them sustaining that if completely removed, it would not relapse, an aspect observed also in our patient during 3 years of follow-up.
Conclusions: CATs are rare heart tumors with slow growth, but with a high embolization risk that raises diagnostic and therapeutic challenges.
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