Clinical pathological conference. An unusual cause of a spontaneous intracerebral haematoma

A 61-year old man was admitted for sudden right hemiparesis. The first CT brain scan revealed a haemorrhage in the left frontal horn. The cause of the bleeding could not be discovered initially. Subsequent CT brain scans showed an isodense mass lesion in the left frontal horn. The patient died after a relapsing course of the hemiparesis. The postmortem examination demonstrated a large protoplasmic astrocytoma of the left basal ganglia with recurrent large bleedings.