Iranian Journal of Pathology

Cardiac Involvement and Subsequent Death due to Extranodal NK/T Cell Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma: An Autopsy Case and Brief Review of the Literature

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

https://doi.org/10.30699/ijp.2021.139566.2524
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

Subjects

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Iranian Journal of Pathology
Volume 16, Issue 3
Summer 2021
Pages 337-342

  • Receive Date 09 November 2020
  • Revise Date 21 December 2020
  • Accept Date 11 January 2021

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