title: Occult gastric cancer presenting as cor pulmonale resulting from tumor cell microembolism.
abstract: Cor pulmonale resulting from tumor emboli is a rare presentation of gastric cancer, and only six similar cases have been reported in the English literature. We report the case of a 37-yr-old woman presenting with dyspnea who died of cor pulmonale. Autopsy revealed signet cell carcinoma of te stomach with intra-abdominal metastasis and right ventricular hypertrophy. There were no macroscopic pulmonary emboli or parenchymal lesions, but more than 60% of the small pulmonary arteries and arterioles were occluded. In most vessels, fibrocellular intimal proliferation was the major finding with only a few entrapped tumor cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Ruttonjee Hospital, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: T C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Cheung
authors.forename: F H
authors.initials: FH
authors.lastname: Ng
authors.forename: K C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Chow
authors.forename: C K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Maw
authors.forename: W F
authors.initials: WF
authors.lastname: Ng
mesh_terms: D000008:Abdominal Neoplasms / Q000556:secondary; D000328:Adult; D001158:Arteries / Q000473:pathology; D001160:Arterioles / Q000473:pathology; D018279:Carcinoma, Signet Ring Cell / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000556:secondary*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung / Q000098:blood supply; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000556:secondary*; D009382:Neoplasms, Unknown Primary / Q000175:diagnosis*; D009360:Neoplastic Cells, Circulating / Q000473:pathology*; D011660:Pulmonary Heart Disease / Q000175:diagnosis*; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*