Ipsilateral cerebral atrophy with thalamic tumor of childhood

Abstract

A case of cerebral tumor with ipsilateral cerebral hemiatrophy is presented and five previously reported cases are reviewed. The etiology of this entity is discussed on the basis of the symptomatological and clinicopathological findings noted in these six cases. It is suggested that ipsilateral cerebral hemiatrophy is due to thinning of the cerebral cortex with degeneration and disappearance of ganglion cells, demyelination in the subcortex, and destruction of axons. The mechanism proposed for ipsilateral cerebral hemiatrophy due to thalamic tumor is that thalamic tumor causes degeneration and disappearance of thalamic ganglion cells and nerve fibers, with consequent secondary Wallerian degeneration of afferent and projecting fibers from the thalamus as well as retrograde degeneration of efferent fibers, thus resulting in extensive atrophy of the cerebral cortex and subcortical tissue.

Detection of Remote Neuronal Reactions in the Thalamus and Hippocampus Induced by Rat Glioma Using the PET Tracer Cis-4-[18F]Fluoro-D-Proline

“…12 Although the remote secondary thalamic reaction after primary ischemic or traumatic cortical damage is a well-known phenomenon, there are only very few reports on secondary reactions in those remote brain areas caused by brain tumors. 13,14 This study was undertaken to investigate whether D-cis-[ 18 F]FPro is able to show secondary reactions in remote brain areas induced by brain tumors and to further explore the uptake behavior of this tracer in neoplastic lesions. H]Thymidine ([ 3 H]thymidine) was used as a reference, which allows a direct comparison of D-cis- [ 18 F]FPro uptake in relation with cell proliferation in the tumors.…”

T-Cell Lymphoma Showing a Non-Enhancing Diffuse White Matter Lesion with Marked Brain Atrophy.

“…In this case, the proposed mechanism for the cerebral hemiatrophy was that the thalamic tumor caused degeneration and disappearance of the thalamic ganglion cells and nerve fibers. This caused secondary Wallerian degeneration of projecting fibers from the thalamus, as well as retrograde degeneration of corticothalamic neurons, resulting in extensive atrophy of the cerebral cortex and subcortical tissue (15). In ML,brain atrophy without therapy is rare (16), and, to our knowledge, MLshowing marked, diffuse brain atrophy has not previously been reported.…”

Germinoma of the Basal Ganglia

“…109 patients with germinoma of the basal ganglia have been reported in the literature (table 1) [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]. There is a male predominance (male:female = 90:7) and the age at diagnosis is between 7 and 40 years (mean age 12.0 years).…”

“…Kwak et al [14]suggested that ipsilateral cerebral hemiatrophy was due to secondary wallerian degeneration of afferent fibers from the thalamus and basal ganglia and retrograde degeneration of efferent fibers caused by destruction and disappearance of ganglia cells and nerve fibers resulting from tumor invasion and infiltration.…”