Malignant tumors and embolizing paraneoplastic endocarditis

A group of 4495 autopsied patients was evaluated. In 1011 (22.5%) of them various malignancies were found. In 20 of these cancer patients (2%) also a nonbacterial verrucous endocarditis was observed. The most serious complication of this paraneoplastic syndrome was central arterial embolization resulting in cerebral and myocardial infarctions. In our group this was observed in 12 patients (60%), in 9 cases of them infarction was the immediate cause of death. Fatal complications due to central embolization were seen also in 3 patients who had a malignant disease without symptoms of generalization. The most frequent tumors observed among the autopsied patients were adenocarcinomas of the digestive tract (40%). In the group of revealed tumors adenocarcinomas clearly prevailed (70%) in 10 cases (50%) also mucin production could be detected.