Echocardiographic diagnosis of carcinoid tumours.

Carcinoid tumours are the most common neuro-endocrine tumours but cardiac i nvolvement is rarely symptomatic although often observed at post-mortem and rarely revelatory of the disease. The authors report 4 cases in which echocardiographic detection of characte ristic right ventricular involvement led to the confirmation of the diagnos is of carcinoid tumour leading to the secondary diagnosis of the primary ca rcinoid tumour. The clinical, physiopathological echocardiographic and ther apeutic characteristics of this condition are discussed.