| Popis: |
Summary 1. Three cases of mediastinal lymphosarcomas in children are reported. Clinically they were characterized by vague, early symptoms of lassitude, insomnia, and nervousness. Later, they gave rise to a fairly definite train of events, such as edema of the face, dyspnea, a feeling of suffocation, and, above all, hemorrhagic pericardial and pleural effusions with displacement of heart and trachea. One had a terminal leucemic blood picture. 2. Roentgenologic findings were initially confusing in two of thecases, but in conjunction with the clinical and laboratory examinations, as well as the course, the malignant nature of the condition was soon established. Marked mediastinal enlargement was demonstrated in two cases, but the third case did not present this feature. Here the tumor was mainly situated in the right pleural cavity and simulated an encapsulated effusion. 3. The necropsy findings in two cases were such as to enable the diagnosis of primary lymphosarcoma of the thymus to be made. Both cases were characterized by large mediastinal tumors arising from the thymus, and, whatever the interpretation of the distant lesions may be, the thymic tumors themselves could not have been metastatic. In a large number of cases, a definite dividing line cannot be drawn between the lymphosarcomas and leucemias, and for these cases the term “leucosarcoma” is useful. |
