Cardiac metastasis and right ventricular outflow tract obstruction in anaplastic carcinoma of the thyroid

• Main Authors: Rao Mugula Sudhakar, Seshadri Sneha, Devasia Tom, Rao Lakshmi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2015-01-01
• Series: Medical Journal of Dr. D.Y. Patil University
• Subjects: Anaplastic carcinoma thyroid; cardiac metastases in thyroid malignancy; right ventricular outflow obstruction in anaplastic carcinoma thyroid; right ventricular outflow tract obstruction
• Online Access: http://www.mjdrdypu.org/article.asp?issn=0975-2870;year=2015;volume=8;issue=4;spage=502;epage=504;aulast=Sudhakar
• ISSN: 0975-2870

Cardiac metastasis is more frequent than primary tumors, with low absolute incidence reported. Cardiac metastases are common secondary to malignant melanoma, carcinoma of the lung, lymphoma, and carcinoma of the breast. Cardiac metastasis secondary to thyroid carcinoma is very uncommon. Among the thyroid malignancies, anaplastic carcinoma is the most aggressive and metastases to the heart has rarely been described in the literature. We report a case of a 60-year-old female with right ventricular outflow tract obstruction secondary to anaplastic carcinoma of the thyroid. An extensive literature search till date was unfruitful in finding a similar case. Thus, we focus the importance of regular echocardiography screening for all cases of thyroid malignancy, especially anaplastic carcinoma for recognizing cardiac involvement antemortem rather than postmortem.