Acute myelocytic leukemia with acute aortic occlusion as presenting symptom

Abstract

In a 42-year-old Caucasian female, acute myelocytic leukemia (M2) presented as occlusion of the distal aorta and right iliac artery. She died after 10 days of respiratory failure. At postmortem examination the aortic wall contained multiple thrombi composed of fibrin and leukemic cells. There was no evidence of diffuse intravascular coagulation. Thromboplastic activity of the blast cells could have played a role in the formation of thrombi in the large vessels of this patient.