Imaging pitfalls, artifacts, and normal variants mimicking cardiac masses

The differential diagnosis of masses found in the heart is often challenging. Knowledge about anatomic variants and imaging artifacts can confer a proper interpretation of echocardiographic findings. Short-term repetitions of the imaging of masses in multiple echocardiographic windows are extremely helpful not only to establish an appropriate diagnosis but also not to miss critical changes in pathologic entities. Additionally, multimodality imaging is useful in differentiating cardiac pathologies from normal variants or imaging artifacts.