Primary cardiac gastrinoma causing Zollinger-Ellison syndrome

Primary cardiac tumors are rare, and there are no reports of patients with a functional gastroenteropancreatic tumor syndrome caused by such a tumor, This case report describes a patient with a cardiac gastrinoma causing Zollinger-Ellison syndrome. Evidence is presented that this tumor represents a primary cardiac tumor. The exact identification of this gastrinoma in an extra-abdominal site was facilitated by the use of [In-111-DTPA-DPhe(1)]octreotide scanning for somatostatin receptors, which these tumors characteristically possess in high numbers, The recent availability of this novel localization method may facilitate identification of extra-abdominal sites in an increasing proportion of patients with gastrinomas and related neuroendocrine functional tumors in which no intra-abdominal primary tumor is currently found.