Challenging Left Ventricular Apical Mass: A Case Review

Primary and secondary cardiac tumors are uncommon, but not extremely rare. Cardiac tumors comprise benign and malignant tumors that arise the heart valves, endocardium, or myocardium. On the other hand, nowadays, infective endocarditis involves increasing numbers of patients without predisposing cardiac conditions and requires a completely different management approach. We describe a challenging case of a cardiac mass (left ventricular apical mass) and present some educational points and discuss the differences between cardiac tumors, infected left ventricular clots (endocarditis), and pure left ventricular apical clots. (Iranian Heart Journal 2018; 19(4): 62-65)