Myocardial contrast echocardiography with 1.5-harmonic imaging in the diagnosis of cardiac malignant lymphoma.

We applied myocardial contrast echocardiography with 1.5-harmonic imaging to an atrioventricular groove tumor in a patient with malignant lymphoma. Contrast echocardiography initially showed one centric legion and some patchy echogenic foci within the tumor, all of which were indicative of arterial components. Subsequently, the tumor was enhanced homogenously, reflecting parenchymal hyperperfusion. These findings were consistent with previous observations of malignant lymphoma using color Doppler. We believe that myocardial contrast echocardiography could afford an important clue to the histologic diagnosis of cardiac tumors.