SILENT GIANT LEFT ATRIUMA CASE REPORT

Left atrial enlargement (LAE) is frequently present in a variety of heart diseases including obviously that secondary to rheumatic fever. At times, the left atrium might become enlarged to giant proportions. It may, however, be seen in pure or predominant mitral stenosis. We recently saw a forty-five-year-old man with silent progressive huge left atrium with atrial fibrillation whose first clinical manifestation was dyspnea. Aside from mild progressive shortness of breath during the past year, the patient had been asymptomatic all her life. He was presented with cardiomegaly evident on her chest roentgenogram. The cardiac enlargement was due to a giant left atrium that distorted the cardiac structures. An echocardiogram was able to delineate the huge left atrium.