Departament of Histology,
cytology and embryology,
Nicolae Testemitanu State University of Medicine and Pharmacy of the Republic of MoldovaIntroduction. Immunohistochemistry provides useful information in the study of tissues and
cells, using antibodies to identify antigens of the examined tissue samples. In the last decades,
special attention has been given to immunohistochemical markers, due to their specificity and
high sensitivity in identifying the histological origin of tumors. This is useful in performing
differential diagnosis and establishing the definitive diagnosis of cardiac tumors, which
facilitates the determination of treatment tactics and the prognosis of pathology.
Aim of the study. In this paper, we aim to analyze the literature and to make a synthesis of the
immunohistochemistry particularities in the study of cardiac tumors, namely the identification of
the immunohistochemical markers characteristic for each histological type of cardiac tumor.
Materials and methods. We reviewed the pertinent literature by a selective PubMed search on
the terms “cardiac tumor”, “immunohistochemistry”, “immunohistochemical markers”. We
analyzed not only various scientific articles, but also specialty books by renowned authors.
Conclusions. Each cardiac tumor has its immunohistochemical markers depending on the tissue
from which it is formed. Knowing these markers facilitates identification of the studied tissue.
Our review study revealed that unlike benign tumors, malignancies exhibit positivity for cell
proliferation markers (Ki-67, PCNA). It is important to mention that the use of
immunohistochemical markers of cardiac tumors allows performing differential diagnosis, the
establishment of a definitive diagnosis, the right choice of treatment and the determination of the
prognosis of the pathology
