[Pathological features of neuroleukemia. Changes and lessons]

Abstract

Between 1971 and 1992 neuropathological examinations were performed in 316 patients having died of leukaemia. Among them 73 had acute lymphoid leukaemia, 134 acute myeloid leukaemia, 49 chronic lymphoid leukaemia and 60 chronic myeloid leukaemia. Meningeal leukaemia, which had been a frequent pathological complication at the beginning of the examination period, later had become rarer. The study made it possible to define further neurologic complications, the characteristic neuropathological changes of the different types and some subtypes of leukaemia and to draw clinical consequences. The incidence of cerebral "leukaemic nodules" was twelve times higher in the myeloid than in the lymphoid leukaemias, this may be the explanation for the fact that central nervous system haemorrhage was more frequent in the myeloid types. Subdural haematoma can primarily be expected in acute myeloid leukaemia. The neuropathologic features of chronic lymphoid leukaemia were particular, as no "leukaemic nodules" developed, and meningeal leukaemia was a rare event; at the same time, it was related with the highest incidence of infiltration of the dura mater and the sciatic nerve.