Chasing Ghosts: Unexplained Artifactual Echogenicity on the Aortic Valve Leading to Unwarranted Surgery

摘要

class="kwd-title">Keywords: Artifact, Aortic valve, Papillary fibroadenoma class="head no_bottom_margin" id="sec1title">IntroductionCardiac papillary fibroelastoma is a benign endocardial papilloma. The prevalence of intracardiac tumors ranges between 0.02% and 0.45%, with fibroelastoma being the second most common primary cardiac tumor and the most prevalent valvular tumor, with the aortic valve being the most frequently affected. Clinically, patients with fibroelastomas often present with thromboembolic events. If the lesion is symptomatic, surgical resection is recommended to prevent further embolic or thromboembolic events. If it is found incidentally, the decision to resect is made on a case-by-case basis., Echocardiographic artifacts can sometimes be mistaken as a true pathology. Differentiating artifacts from cardiac lesions is extremely critical, as it can lead to unwarranted surgery. We present the case of a patient who presented with a stroke and an echocardiographic artifact masquerading as a papillary fibroelastoma.