[On relapsing paraneoplastic cerebral embolism. Case report and survey of literature (author's transl)].

Abstract

The disease of a 34-year-old patient with relapsing cerebral embolisms, endocarditis, thrombophlebitis and hypercoagulopathy had the characteristics of paraneoplastic syndromes described and discussed in literature. Autopsy yielded a clinically unrecognised, dedifferentiated adenocarcinoma of the bronchial system. At an early stage of the disease cerebral embolisms had produced severe cerebral neurological signs with varying manifestations. This influenced not only the clinical picture and course of the disease to a considerable extent, but also focussed diagnostic attention on these signs to such a degree that the possibility of a masked carcinoma did not seem to suggest itself. The assumption of paraneoplastic linkups is supported by experimental and postmortem examinations on metabolic and immunological remote action of tumours on cardiac valves and on the vascular and coagulation system. However, the exact pathogenetic details are still largely unknown.