[Data concerning a case of long-term, asymptomatic, calcified cerebral tumor with late evolution of olfactory meningioma]

In a lot of 3 patients with olfactory meningioma, one patient drew particular attention by the particularities of its evolution, which was asymptomatic for a long time and atypical. The disease started at the age of 38 with asthenia, headaches, dizziness and X-ray images of left parasellar calcified brain tumour, without neurological signs of a focus at any of the repeated clinical or paraclinical examinations. After eight years focal signs appears: left pyramidal irritation, absences, left hyposmia, without altered visual acuity or conclusive scintigraphic and EEG alterations. Left carotid arteriography indicated a space-occupying process. The disease progressed slowly with left hemiparesis and corresponding effects. A diagnosis of "left olfactory meningioma" was established in the Neurosurgical Clinic, Bucharest. The situation deteriorated in 1977: total left anosmia, Jacksonian seizures, sometimes generalized, uncinate fits, paroxysmal headaches, amnesia disturbances and marked right hemiparesis. Recent scintigraphic and EEG alterations likewise lent support to a diagnosis of brain tumour. The existence of calcified, asymptomatic, trailing brain tumours, with an atypical and late evolution of unilateral olfactory meningioma, without Foster-Kennedy syndrome, demands from the beginning close surveillance and complex investigations, since a prolonged absence of anosmia and focal phenomena does not exclude the possibility of a meningioma of the olfactory groove, and may often lead to errors of diagnosis.