Multifocal progressive neurological disorder caused by neoplastic angioendotheliosis.

The case of a 46-year-old woman who suffered a multifocal neurological illness, which rapidly progressed to dementia, is reported; the clinical signs were suggestive of multiple sclerosis. At necropsy, polyfocal cerebral white-matter lesions, associated with intravascular plugs of neoplastic cells which appeared to arise from the vascular endothelium, were found. The findings were typical of a rare form of malignant disease of the vascular endothelium known as neoplastic angioendotheliosis, which shows a striking predilection for the central nervous system.

Thorotrast-induced haemangioendothelial sarcoma--a lesson from the past.

Complications following a carotid arteriogram done in 1947 with Thorotrast are described in a 47-year-old man who subsequently died from them in 1970. They included a local cervical granuloma with associated haemangioendothelial sarcoma, chromosome changes characteristic of radiation damage and widespread haemangioendothelial sarcomatous deposits in brain, lung, liver, probably arising from multicentric primary sites in the bone marrow. A survey of the use of Thorotrast as a contrast medium in Australia and New Zealand showed that its use was extremely limited. The prinicpal complications seen have been two cervical granulomas and one hepatoma.