Primary cardiac lymphoma detected by ¹⁸F-FDG PET scan: A case report

Excerpt

Cardiac lymphoma is a rare type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma of extranodal location, exclusively located in the heart and/or pericardium.1,2 Cardiac involvement secondary to disseminated disease is more common, occurring in 10%-20% of cases, while their presentation as primary tumor corresponds to only 0.5% of all lymphomas.2 The incidence of cardiac lymphoma is higher in the seventh decade of life and affects more male than female patients, especially those immunocompromised.1,2 Its variable clinical presentation makes diagnosis difficult, and the delay in diagnosis is the main determinant of prognosis.2 Nuclear medicine, through the use of positron emission tomography, using fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose labeled with fluorine-18 (¹⁸F-FDG PET), has become an established method for staging of lymphomas. It has high sensitivity for the detection of the disease, since lymphomatous cells have high glucose consumption that translate into increased uptake areas in the images.3 …