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Mucin Embolism to Cerebral Arteries: A Fatal Complication of Carcinoma of the Breast

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2015

John H.N. Deck  and
Mary A. Lee
John H.N. Deck*
Affiliation:
The Department of Pathology, The Toronto Western Hospital
Mary A. Lee
Affiliation:
The Department of Pathology, The Toronto Western Hospital
*
Department of Pathology, Toronto Western Hospital, 399 Bathurst Street, Toronto, Canada M5T 2S8.
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Summary:

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The case is reported of a woman with a mucin producing lobular carcinoma of the breast with metastases to many bone sites, whose terminal neurological illness was the result, not of cerebral metastases, but of cerebral infarcts. These were caused by emboli of mucin and emulsified fat, originating in bone metastases.

The pathogenesis of this embolism is compared with that of traumatic fat embolism. Attention is drawn to this process because emboli of this type have never been reported and because this distant nonmetastatic effect of carcinoma may have been overlooked in other cases. It is suggested that this mechanism should be considered in the diagnosis of otherwise obscure cerebral infarction.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences , Volume 5 , Issue 3 , August 1978 , pp. 327 - 330
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Neurological Sciences Federation 1978

References

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