Objective: To investigate the influence of corticotropin therapy on cardiac rhabdomyoma.
Design: Analysis of data from echocardiography performed on in-patients.
Patients: Six patients with rhabdomyoma who were admitted to the authors' medical centre with either convulsion (five cases) or prematurity (one case) between 1985 and 1995. Five had tuberous sclerosis.
Intervention: Size of cardiac tumours of each patient was measured by echocardiography, and volume index was calculated as the ratio of the tumour volume to its initial volume.
Main result: Increase in size of some of the tumours was found during corticotropin therapy on follow-up echocardiography. Maximum volume indexes of tumours in the case of patients (n = 4) who did not receive corticotropin therapy was 1.2 to 3.7, whereas those of patients (n = 2) who received therapy was 9.1 to 12; one of the latter patients died.
Conclusion: Corticotropin may contribute to the enlargement of cardiac rhabdomyoma. The size of cardiac rhabdomyomas must be carefully followed when patients are treated with corticotropin.