Computed tomography in intracranial hemorrhage in leukemia

In tracranial hemorrhage in leukemia was clinicopathologically studied in 62 cases of autopsy materials, with special attention paid to a morphological comparison of CT images with pathological findings. Intracranial hemorrhage was found in 32 of the 62 leukemic patients (51.6%), and in 13 of these patients (21.0%) it was responsible for death. Leukemic intracranial hemorrhage occurred more often in the acute leukemic type than in the chronic type, and even more often in younger leukemic patinents; it was pathologically characterized by multiple lesions in the white matter of the cerebral hemisphere, prone to combination with SAH or SDH. The hemorrhages could be divided into five types: (1) scattered small hemorrhagic type, (2) hematoma type, (3) fusion type (large hemorrhage composed of assembled small hemorrhages), (4) SAH type, and (5) SDH type. Among these types, the fusion type was considered to be characteristic of leukemia. CT was undertaken in 5 pathologically proven cases, with findings of the scattered small hemorrhagic type in 1, of the SDH type in 3, and of the fusion type in 1. Yet, one case with scattered small hemorrhages and two cases with SDH failed to be detected by CT. However, one case with a typical fusion hemorrhage was found to have multiple, irregular, high-density areas with surrounding edema and a mass effect as well as pathological findings. Therefore, a large-fusion hemorrhage, which is one of the most characteristic types of leukemic intracranial hemorrhage, could be demonstrated as distinctive CT images which reflected neuropathological findings. On the other hand, small parenchymal hemorrhages and relatively thin subdural hemorrhages could not be detected by CT. In conclusion, it seems that CT has value in the diagnosis of intracranial hemorrhage in leukemia. (J.P.N.)