Papillary Fibroelastoma Involving the Left Ventricular Wall

A 71-year-old white woman presented to her primary care physician for a routine visit and was found to have a new, previously undocumented cardiac murmur. A subsequent transthoracic echocardiogram revealed a 1 cm mobile mass arising from the lateral free wall of the left ventricle. Transesophageal echocardiography later confirmed these findings. The patient underwent a left ventriculotomy and excision of a .7 cm friable mass, which was later identified as a papillary fibroelastoma (PFE) by routine histopathologic studies. We present this unique case with a review of the literature