Progressive necrotizing myelopathy associated with leukemia: clinical, pathologic, and MRI correlation.

We describe a patient with progressive, irreversible, necrotizing myelopathy associated with myelomonocytic leukemia. The neuropathologic lesions consisted of diffuse necrosis, most pronounced in the cervical cord and affecting both the gray and white matter. These areas corresponded to areas of increased T2 on magnetic resonance imaging scans of the patient. We felt that there was no causal relationship of these lesions to any single antileukemic agent the patient received, and no other local or systemic causes were found to explain the lesions at necropsy. It is suggested that our case is an example of paraneoplastic necrotizing myelopathy. To our knowledge, this is the third case of necrotizing myelopathy associated with leukemia reported in the English medical literature, and the first one demonstrating usefulness of magnetic resonance imaging in diagnosis of necrotizing myelopathy.