title: Differential diagnosis between intracranial dissemination of spinal cord astrocytoma and paraneoplastic limbic encephalitis.
abstract: We describe the clinical features of limbic encephalitis that developed after palliative spinal cordotomy in 2 patients with malignant thoracic astrocytoma. Both patients showed short-term memory loss, hallucinations of smells and psychiatric symptoms. Brain MRI on T2-weighted and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery sequences revealed high intensity lesions in bilateral temporal lobe areas. We considered that both patients had paraneoplastic limbic encephalitis associated with astrocytoma because of various clinical and radiological features. But the possibility of intracranial dissemination of astrocytoma could not be fully excluded. The differential diagnosis between intracranial dissemination of spinal cord astrocytoma and paraneoplastic limbic encephalitis may be sometimes difficult.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, Keio University, Japan. seki-med@sc.itc.keio.ac.jp
authors.forename: Morinobu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Seki
authors.forename: Shigeaki
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Ken
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ishii
authors.forename: Yoshikane
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Izawa
authors.forename: Shinichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Yoshiaki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Toyama
authors.forename: Masaya
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: Norihiro
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Suzuki
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001254:Astrocytoma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D002818:Cordotomy / Q000009:adverse effects; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020363:Limbic Encephalitis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D008297:Male; D013120:Spinal Cord Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology