BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS Ultrasound for the Diagnosis of Atrial Tumor

tablished using the ultrasonic cardiac echogram in this patient. The findings at cardiac catheteri-zation and angiocardiography were not diagnostic. It is suggested that the ultrasonic cardiac echo-gram is a simple atraumatic method for the diag-nosis of an elusive condition. T HE PREOPERATIVE DIAGNOSIS of intracavitary cardiac tumors is notoriously ellusive. Sev-eral clinical and hemodynamic clues to the diag-nosis of atrial tumors have been viewed recently (1, 2). A patient in whom the diagnosis of left atrial tumor was made using the ultrasonic car-diac echogram (CEG) is described. Patient W. M., a 51-year-old man, was re-ferred to the Stanford Medical Center for cardiac evaluation. He had had acute rheumati