[Value of magnetic resonance imaging in a lipoma of the left ventricle].

A patient with benign left ventricular lipoma was explored pre- and post-operatively with echocardiography, computerized tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). With MRI spin-echo sequences the lipoma emitted a bright signal similar to that of normal fatty tissue on the two echoes of the sequence (28 ms and 65 ms). MRI was not better than CT to demonstrate that the tumour was a lipoma, but it proved to be the best technique to obtain information on tumoral spread to the myocardium and pericardium, and it showed the intracavitary extension without the need for contrast medium injection. After surgery, MRI displayed the remains of a septal lipomatous lesion. This case underlines the usefulness of MRI for the evaluation of cardiac tumours, and particularly lipomas.