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Primary cardiac lymphoma is classically defined as an extranodal non-Hodgkin's lymphoma exclusively located in the heart and/or pericardium. However, over the last few years, this definition has been extended to include other localizations on condition that these are clearly less important then a cardiac site, that must remain the first, during the illness course, and the most important for its entity. PCL is extremely rare in immunocompetent patients, accounting for 1.3% of all cardiac tumours and 0.5% of all extranodal lymphomas, but it has been encountered with increasing frequency in patients with AIDS or other severe immunodepressive syndromes. PCL is difficult to diagnose, especially during the early stage of the disease, because of its non-specific clinical manifestations, the limited possibility of using non-invasive diagnostic techniques, and difficulties or delays in applying invasive methods. The malignancy of its histotypes and its delicate location are responsible for its rapid and frequently unfavourable evolution. Successful treatment, which is mainly based on anthracycline-containing polychemotherapies, is heavily dependent on an early diagnosis. After a general review of the literature, the authors describe the clinical case of a patient with a PCL that had a secondary central nervous system location, treated with polychemotherapy and autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation. Emphasis is placed on the fact that it is more difficult to eradicate the disease from the central nervous system than from the heart.

There is now evidence that two classes of dopaminergic receptors are present in CNS of the rat: D1, associated, and D2, not associated with adenylate cyclase activity. Drugs which interact specifically with D2 receptor are more capable of antagonizing the hyperkinetic behavior induced by lead exposure in rat. They also have a beneficial effect in children with hyperkinetic disorders. We found that the dose (-)sulpiride which causes sedation is lower in lead intoxicated animals than in controls. On the contrary, haloperidol produces sedation with the same potency in lead-treated and in control rats. The reported behavioral effects were found to be correlated with biochemical changes. In fact, in lead exposed rats D2 receptors, measured by (-)-[3H]sulpiride stereospecific binding, are altered, while D1 receptors seem not to be affected. The alterations are different according to the area examined: D2 receptor function is increased in the striatum and decreased in the nucleus accumbens. The impairment of D2 receptor might explain the better capacity of substituted benzamides to improve the hyperkinetic behavior observed in lead exposed rats.