RAPIDLY PROGRESSIVE DEMENTIA CAUSED BY TU MORAL MICROEMBOLISM IN THE CENTRAL-NERVOUS-SYSTEM

Brain tumoral microembolism is a very unusual etiology of cerebral vas cular disease in patients with cancer. The clinical course is characte rized by diffuse encefalopathy with associated neurologic deficits. We report a 72-year-old male patient, who developed rapidly progressive dementia associated with diffuse myoclonic jerks, without neurologic d eficit, whose brain biopsy showed microscopic emboli of adenocarcinoma of unknown origin in capillary vessels. We did not find metastasis in other organs. We suggest that this entity should be included in the d ifferential diagnoses of the subacute dementias.