[Echinococcal cyst of the right ventricle: diagnostic role of 2-dimensional echocardiography].

A case of cardiac echinococcosis in a 22 year-old woman is reported. Clinical findings and cardiac catheterization data offered only presumptive evidence of an intraventricular mass but failed to make a positive diagnosis of cardiac involvement by hydatid disease. Using Two-Dimensional Echocardiography (2-DE) we were able to identify a rounded structure with multiple loculation into the right ventricle, highly suggestive of a hydatid cyst. Surgery confirmed our findings. We confirm the ability of 2-DE to detect and characterise intracardiac masses and we suggest that 2-DE could be considered the procedure of choice in the diagnosis of cardiac hydatid disease.