J Vet Diagn Invest 11:73–78 (1999) Intrapericardial neoplasia in dogs

Abstract. A retrospective study was conducted from 1,919 necropsies of dogs, and 52 cases were selected on the basis of primary or metastatic neoplasia in the pericardium, the heart base, or the myocardium. Primary intrapericardial neoplasms were more frequent than intrapericardial metastases. Hemangiosarcomas were the most frequent primary neoplasms, followed by chemodectomas. Lymphomas were the most frequent metastatic neoplasms, followed by fibrosarcomas and rhabdomyosarcomas. Other neoplasms, either primary or metastatic, occurred rarely. Neoplasms affecting the pericardium, the heart base or the myocardium are infrequent in the dog, repre-senting only a small proportion of necropsy cases.6,27 Hemangiosarcomas4,13,27 and chemodectomas2,4,27,28 are the most frequently observed. Other mesenchymal and epithelial tumors have been sporadically report-ed.1,4,7,8,11,12,14,15,17,18,20,23,25–27 Ratios of primary intraperi-cardial versus metastatic neoplasms and of metastatic mesenchymatous versus epithelial neoplasms are un