Primary lymphoma of the heart: three-dimensional reconstruction

Primary cardiac lymphoma is defined as a lymphoma of the heart and pericardium with little or no extracardiac or local involvement such as mediastinal lymph nodes or pleural effusion. Most cases are diagnosed only post mortem 1 . If this disease could be diagnosed earlier, therapy with chlorpropamide, doxorubicin, vincristine and prednisone (CHOP) could bring about a remission 2,3,4 . Transoesophageal echocardiography with three-dimensional acquisition is a new technique which can allow earlier diagnosis, and facilitate guided transvenous biopsy 5,6 . We here report an example of the pre-mortem diagnosis of cardiac lymphoma by these techniques.