The Applications of PCR to the Diagnosis of Primary Cardiac lymphoma

A 75-year old man initially complained of pollakiuria and low abdomlnal pain, and died of massive bleeding from an exacerbated gastric ulcer. The dlagnosis of primary cardiac lymphoma was made postmortem. The tumor involved only the epicardium and myocardium, which met the criteria of primary cardiac lymphoma as defined by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. The lymphoma consisted of large cells and expressed the B cell marker, CD20. Although chronic inflammation due to chronic renal failure was observed in the pericardium around the lymphoma, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was conducted to detect monoclonality at the DNA level in lymphoma cells, which were shown to comprise a monoclonal population. Acta Pathol Jpn 42: 667–671, 1992.