[Intracranial chordoma--report of two cases with cytochemical study]

Intracranial chordoma is very uncommon. We report two cases of intracranial chordoma with cytochemical studies. Case 1: A 66-year-old housewife was admitted on February 10, 1981, complaining of disturbance of visual acuity and bitemporal hemianopsia. A plain skull film showed normal finding with no calcification. CT showed a spherical ring contrast enhancement with intraluminal low density area in the suprasellar cistern. Pneumoencephalogram showed a suprasellar mass with filling defect of the anterior part of the third ventricle. On February 28, 1981, the tumor was intracapsually removed by transfrontal approach. The tumor had re-brown-turbid fluid. On March 16, she was discharged with no disturbance of visual acuity and visual field. But she again complained of visual disturbance and was hospitalized on October 26, 1981. Second operation was performed through trans-frontal route. The tumor with pus-like fluid was resected subtotally and postoperative radiation was given with 4,500 rads. Histologically the tumor had physaliferous cells cytomorphologically. Cytochemical study: cytoplasm and matrix were detected positively with PAS stain, Mucicarmine stain, Alcian blue stain, and Colloid-Iron stain. Mucinous glycogen was positive by PAS stain after diastase digestion test. These mucinous material was not stained with Sudan stain. Case 2: A 36-year-old man was admitted with paresthesia on right lower face on September 27, 1983. In the past history he complained of diplopia for several months in 1978 and 1982. A tomography of the skull showed a spherical soft mass in the sphenoid sinus and a calcified lesion from the posterior clinoid process to the floor of the third ventricle.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)