One Size Does Not Fit All: Disease Profiles of Serious Illness Patients Receiving Specialty Palliative Care.

Introduction: Understanding the symptom profiles of seriously ill patients who receive palliative care, especially noncancer diagnoses where the data are sparse and are critical to better targeting our resources to the needs of patients.

Methods: We performed a retrospective, multicohort study of patients evaluated during their first consultative palliative care visit in a community-based palliative care registry. We placed into one of seven major disease categories based on clinician-reported primary diagnosis for consultation.

New diagnosis of left atrial myxoma in a 93-year-old woman.

A 93-year-old woman with a history of hypertension was noted to have a mass in the left atrium prolapsing partially through the mitral valve on a routine surface echocardiogram in 2002. A transesophageal echocardiogram was then performed revealing an irregular mass with an appearance of protruding fronds of tissue. The echogenicity of the mass was inhomogeneous with some areas of punctate calcification, and the mass was attached to the interatrial septum.