Document Type : Case Reports
Authors
- Nikolaos D. Goutas 1
- Emmanouil I. Sakelliadis 1
- Eleftheria Lakiotaki 2
- Konstantinos D. Katsos 3
- Kalliroi Spanou 4
- Pinelopi Korkolopoulou 2
- Dimitrios G. Vlachodimitropoulos 1
1 Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
2 Department of Pathology, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
3 Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
4 Department of Pathology, 251 Airforce General Hospital, Athens, Greece
Abstract
Cardiac tumors range from benign to high grade malignancies. The incidence of cardiac involvement either by primary, or secondary tumors during autopsy is reported to be extremely low. Extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma (ENKTL), nasal type is an unusual type of lymphoma. The skin is the second most common site of involvement after the respiratory tract. We present a case of a 63-year-old male, who was recently diagnosed with ENKTL, nasal type, who received chemotherapy, and died without any evident cause. The corpse was referred for routine medicolegal examination. Macroscopical determination of the cause of death was not feasible and subsequent histopathological examination revealed heart infiltration by ENKTL that was found in vivo in cutaneous lesions. Similar infiltrations existed in the pancreatic tissue. To the best of our knowledge, myocardial infiltration of ENKTL, inducing severe myocardial lesions that eventually caused death, is rare, with limited cases reported in the literature.
Keywords
- Autopsy
- Extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma
- Forensic medicine
- Heart infiltration
- Heart lymphoma
- Nasal type
- Sudden cardiac death
Main Subjects
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