[Extensive pulmonary tumor embolisms of anaplastic thyroid gland carcinoma as a rare cause of hemorrhagic pleural effusion in an 88-year-old patient].

An 88 year old woman without substantial previous illness was admitted to hospital because of a rapidly developing dyspnea and thoracic pains. X-Ray, CT scan and ultra sound showed a subdivided pleural effusion of the left side. After a short time a pulmonary infiltrate as well as a contralateral pleural effusion developed. Neither tumor cells nor mycobacteria could be detected in repeated pleural punctions. The general condition of the patient was deteriorating continuously while an antibiotic therapy given in the meantime only led to a temporary recovery. Three weeks later the patient died under the picture of a cardio-respiratory failure. At autopsy the lungs showed parenchymal haemorrhages and multiple infarctions as well as pleural effusions. The above mentioned changes could be explained histologically by tumor embolism of small pulmonary arteries from an anaplastic thyroid carcinoma. The discussion gives a short survey about already published cases of tumor embolism in the lung. PMVC as the diagnostic method of choice is discussed.