Cardiac involvement in CD56 negative primary pancreatic extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma, nasal type, presenting with ventricular tachycardia during the early stages of chemotherapy

Intern Med. 2014;53(20):2333-6. doi: 10.2169/internalmedicine.53.2764. Epub 2014 Oct 15.

Abstract

We herein report the case of a 23-year-old man who presented with recurrent pancreatitis and was diagnosed with primary pancreatic extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma, nasal type, involving the right ventricle. The cardiac involvement was screened and confirmed by transthoracic echocardiography (TTE), cardiac magnetic resonance imaging and fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography. Although the patient did not have any cardiac symptoms or evidence of arrhythmia before chemotherapy, he presented with fatal newly developed ventricular tachycardia during the early stages of chemotherapy. The follow-up TTE after his chemotherapy demonstrated markedly decreased thickness of the invaded myocardium, thus suggesting that the myocardium infiltrated by lymphoma cells might become vulnerable to fatal arrhythmia with tumor regression.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • CD3 Complex / immunology
  • CD56 Antigen / immunology
  • Heart Neoplasms / complications*
  • Heart Neoplasms / secondary*
  • Humans
  • Lymphoma, Extranodal NK-T-Cell / pathology*
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Male
  • Pancreatic Neoplasms / pathology*
  • Positron-Emission Tomography
  • Tachycardia, Ventricular / etiology*
  • Young Adult

Substances

  • CD3 Complex
  • CD56 Antigen
  • NCAM1 protein, human