Intracardiac malignant lymphoma demonstrated by 201thallium and 67gallium scintigraphy

Primary cardiac lymphoma is an extremely rare condition, therefore there has been little experience with radionuclide imaging of cardiac tumor by Tl-201 or Ga-67. An abnormal uptake of Ga-citrate and Tl-201 in the right atrium was observed initially in a 77-years-old man with superior vena cava syndrome. The pathological diagnosis of the surgically resected specimen was non-Hodgkin malignant lymphoma in right atrium. Tl-201 is used as an imaging agent in malignant tumor, however, previous reports suggest that Tl-201 scintigraphy may not be a useful method to detect cardiac involvement in patient with malignant neoplasm. But experience in this case suggests that there is a case with intracardiac tumor detected by Tl-201 scintigraphy. (author)