Carcinomatous encephalitis as clinical presentation of occult lung adenocarcinoma: case report

Carcinomatous encephalitis is a rare entity, originally described by Madow and Alpers in 1951, which is characterized by tumoral spreading perivascular, without mass effect. Clinical manifestations such as hemiparesis, seizures, ataxia, speech difficulties, cerebrospinal fluid findings as well as co...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Ribeiro,Henrique Barbosa (author)
Other Authors: Paiva Jr,Tadeu Ferreira de (author), Mamprin,Gustavo Pignatari Rosas (author), Gorzoni,Milton Luiz (author), Rocha,Antônio José da (author), Lancellotti,Carmen Lucia Penteado (author)
Format: article
Language:eng
Published: 2007
Subjects:
Online Access:http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0004-282X2007000500022
Country:Brazil
Oai:oai:scielo:S0004-282X2007000500022
Description
Summary:Carcinomatous encephalitis is a rare entity, originally described by Madow and Alpers in 1951, which is characterized by tumoral spreading perivascular, without mass effect. Clinical manifestations such as hemiparesis, seizures, ataxia, speech difficulties, cerebrospinal fluid findings as well as computed tomography are nonspecific. This leads the physician to pursue more frequent diseases that could explain those manifestations - toxic, metabolic, and/or infectious encephalopathy. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with gadolinium, the method of choice, presumes the diagnosis. Previous reports of this unusual form of metastatic disease have described patients with prior diagnosis of pulmonary adenocarcinoma. We present the case of carcinomatous encephalitis in a 76-years-old woman as the primary manifestation of occult pulmonary adenocarcinoma with its clinical, imaging, and anatomopathological findings.