Asymmetrical lipomatosis: report of two cases

Abstract

Summary:We report on two patients with an asymmetrical expansion of fat tissue. At computed tomography, lipomatous tissue proved to be superficially located in one patient and both subcutaneously and deeply located in the second. Signs and symptoms of a peripheral neuropathy were observed in both patients, who were otherwise asymptomatic. The lipolytic activity in post-heparin plasma was normal in both patients. The fat cell size oflipomatous tissue, obtained in one patient by percutaneous needle biopsy, was higher than that of contralateral, uninvolved adipose tissue. The adipose tissue lipoprotein lipase activity in Upomatous tissue was higher than that in normal tissue. High density lpoprotein (HDL), HDL2 and HDL3 cholesterol values were elevated in both patients but not exceeding 1 standard deviation the values of age and sex matched controls. IsoprenaUine-stimulated lipid mobilzation was similar in lipomatous and in control tissue.

Adult-onset Asymmetrical Lipomatosis

“…To the best of our knowledge, our case is only the second case of adult-onset asymmetrical lipomatosis, and therefore, probably represents a new disease entity; i.e., asymmetrical lipomatosis. Enzi et al ( 4 ) reported similar cases but they developed in childhood and involved peripheral neuropathy. Whether the adultonset asymmetrical lipomatosis reported by Yang et al and ourselves belongs to the same disease entity as the early-onset asymmetrical lipomatosis reported by Enzi et al requires further investigation.…”

“…Lipomatosis refers to a number of diseases, which are characterized by the progressive growth of unencapsulated fat masses with diffuse and symmetrical distributions ( 2 , 4 ). A number of clinically different lipomatoses have been categorized.…”