[A 65-year-old woman with progressive loss of vision and visual field defects]

We report a 65-year-old Japanese lady who suffered from progressive loss of vision and visual field defect. She was well until her 61 years of the age in November of 1999, when she was found to have bitemporal hemianopsia. A small enhancing mass lesion was found in the chiasmatic region. She was treated with steroid and she noted marked improvement in her visual field defects. In August of 2000, she noted disturbance of gait. Cranial MRI revealed a mass in the right midbrain extending into the hypothalamic and thalamic regions. She was again treated with steroid with marked improvement. However, in November of 2001, she started to show somnolence and diabetes insipidus. She was treated with steroid, nasal desmopressin, and insulin for her steroid induced diabetes mellitus. Cranial CT scan showed a large enhancing lesion involving the entire midbrain, hypothalamus, and the thalamic regions. She developed respiratory arrest on July 15, 2001 and was pronounced dead. She was discussed in a neurological CPC and the chief discussant arrived at the conclusion that the patient had a primary malignant lymphoma of the brain. Clinical diagnosis in the early stage of her disease was neurosarcoidosis. Post-mortem examination revealed a mass continuously involving the pons, midbrain, hypothalamus, thalamus, and the putamen. The optic chiasm was enlarged. By histologic examination, the mass consisted of dense medium sized tumor cells. Immunohistologic observation revealed that the tumor cells were B-cell type malignant lymphoma. No tumor cells were found in the systemic organs.