PRIMARY PULMONARY-ARTERY SARCOMA

A 66-year-old woman with a history of mitral valve replacement with a Starr-Edwards ball valve 25 years ago was treated for refractory heart failure but died of right heart failure. At autopsy, primary pulmonar y artery sarcoma was found in the right ventricular outflow tract, mai n pulmonary trunk, and bilateral pulmonary artery, and had invaded the aortic arch. The pathohistologic diagnosis was osteosarcoma. Echocard iography, chest computed tomography and right ventriculography perform ed 1 year before death did not reveal the presence of a tumor in the p ulmonary artery. The history of this patient shows that primary pulmon ary artery sarcoma grows rapidly, with, in this case, the patient dyin g within 1 year of its appearance.