Stroke as the first manifestation of concealed cancer.
OBJECTIVE
Trousseau's syndrome (TS) is defined as a malignancy-related thromboembolism occurring in patients with an underlying or undiagnosed malignancy. Stroke seldom occurs as the first manifestation of a cancer. We investigated the clinical and radiological features of patients with TS.


METHODS
We reviewed the clinical, pathologic, and radiological records of consecutive stroke patients, whose cancers were diagnosed at stroke presentation. Cancer-related stroke was defined if no definite cause was confirmed and malignancy was detected within 6 months of first stroke onset without cancer-related treatment. All patients underwent brain diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI), MR angiography, and echocardiography. The sizes, numbers, and locations of all hyperintense lesions in the DWI were noted.


RESULTS
Ten patients were finally analyzed. Histologically, cancers were often proven to adenocarcinomas (50%, 5/10) of advanced stage. Six of 10 patients tested (60%) had elevated D-dimer. Seven of the 10 patients (70%) showed bihemispheric anterior and posterior involvement. DWI features showed numerous small and medium or large lesions in multiple territories in 9 patients (90%).


CONCLUSIONS
The authors emphasize that when presented with multiple bihemispheric infarctions on DWI and an unknown etiology, the neurologist must consider the existence of a concealed cancer.
Kwon
Hyung-Min
HM
Department of Neurology, Seoul National University Boramae Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Kang
Bong Su
BS
Yoon
Byung-Woo
BW
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002544:Cerebral Infarction / Q000473:pathology; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000150:complications*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D020521:Stroke / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology*