Li J, Ho S Y, Becker A E, Jones H
Department of Paediatrics, Imperial College School of Medicine at National Heart and Lung Institute, London, United Kingdom.
Department of Cardiovascular Pathology, Academic Medical Centre, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Cardiovasc Pathol. 1998 Jan-Feb;7(1):51-5. doi: 10.1016/S1054-8807(97)00058-6.
We report a unique case of multiple subepicardial lipomas found in a 15-year-old girl who died suddenly. This case is, to the best of our knowledge, unique in several aspects. First, the large lipomas arose extensively from the surface of the heart, infiltrating the walls of all four chambers, and the left ventricle was most severely involved. Second, the lipomas were associated with lipomatous hypertrophy of the interatrial groove. Third, multiple lipomas involved the organs of two systems, namely, the heart and the stomach. We speculate that it was fatty infiltration of the left ventricle that led to ventricular fibrillation and sudden death.
