Cardiac involvement by non-Hodgkin's lymphoma: an unusual presentation of heart conduction disturbances

Primary cardiac lymphoma in an immunocompetent woman

We report a fatal primary cardiac non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in a 62 years old immunocompetent woman presenting with tamponade and complete atrioventricular block. CT-scan, echocardiography and autopsy examination showed a tumor largely infiltrating the heart without extracardiac involvement. A surgical biopsy revealed high grade B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma with a misleading myelomonocytic CD68 (KPI) expression. Polymerase Chain Reaction analysis revealed a clonal rearrangement of the immunoglobulin heavy chain gene and confirmed the B-cell origin of the lymphoma. Our report also emphasizes the role of immunohistochemical and molecular techniques in the diagnosis.