Prevalence of cardiac tumours at autopsy in Ibadan.

The post mortem specimens, protocols, slides and hospital case notes of 6064 necropsies carried out in the University College Hospital, Ibadan over a seven year period were reviewed. Cardiac tumours were found in 64 subjects (1.06%) of all autopsies and in 8.5% of all 752 malignancies that came to autopsy during the same period. Only two of these tumours arose primarily in the heart whilst the remaining were metastatic tumours. The right side of the heart was more often involved than any other part (31.38%). The tumour with the highest cardiac involvement was Burkitt's lymphoma with an incidence of 30 cases i.e. 8.24% of all malignancies; 0.48% of all necropsies studied; 53.6% of all Burkitt's lymphoma autopsied. The risk of associating the rate of cardiac involvement of any tumour with its index of higher frequency was emphasized in the light of the paucity of involvement in a more frequent malignancy (hepatocellular) carcinoma in this environment. Routine medical examination coupled with an awareness of the possible susceptibility of the heart to secondary involvement by Burkitt's lymphoma would aid ante-mortem diagnosis of intracardiac malignancy particularly in patients of Burkitt's lymphoma age group.