INCIDENCE AND CLINICAL MANIFESTATIONS OF CARDIAC METASTASES

Abstract

The incidence found at autopsy of cardiac metastases in patients who died of cancer is reported in the literature to be less than 4%.¹Pollia and Gogol²found involvement of the heart by metastatic disease in 29 cases among 1,450 autopsies of patients dying of cancer; Scott and Garvin,³101 among 1,085; Ritchie,⁴16 in 857; and Prichard,⁵146 of 4,375 cancer autopsies. The disproportionate frequency of serial changes in the electrocardiograms of patients dying of cancer at Memorial Center led us to review the clinical and postmortem data of 500 consecutive cancer deaths observed between 1948 and 1950. <h3>METHOD AND MATERIAL</h3> The incidence of cardiac metastases in the various neoplastic diseases encountered was tabulated, and the exact site of the metastases, as well as the degree of cardiac involvement, was noted. The clinical, electrocardiographic, and roentgenographic findings were correlated, insofar as possible, with the