[Superficial siderosis appeared in a case of suprasellar embryonal carcinoma]

A case of superficial siderosis that appeared in a case of suprasellar embryonal carcinoma is reported. A 24-year-old man presented polydipsia and vertigo. MRI revealed a suprasellar tumor. The tumor contained high intense spots on T1-weighted images, suggesting intratumoral hemorrhage. He underwent a surgery, which proved it as embryonal carcinoma pathologically. Cerebrospinal fluid was xanthochromic at surgery, suggesting terminal hemorrhage. After surgery, he received a total dose of 56 Gy of irradiation. Tumor decreased in size and symptoms improved. However, he presented occipital headache 7 months after surgery. MRI showed disseminated tumors in the subarachnoid spaces. He received irradiation for the whole spine and adjuvant chemotherapy. During treatment, MRI demonstrated low signals on the surface of the brain stem, suggesting the superficial siderosis. The lesions spread to the surface of the cerebellum and tentorium cerebelli. Superficial siderosis is characterized by the deposition of hemosiderin in the leptomeninges, cranial nerves and spinal cord. The etiology of the hemosiderin deposition is thought to be chronic or recurrent bleeding into subarachnoid space. Experimentally, similar lesions have been produced in the animals following intrathecal injection of blood or hemolysed red cells. In the literature, MRI demonstrated a rim of marked hypo-intensity on T2-weighted images, consistent with hemosiderin deposits, on the surface of cerebellum and brain stem. Gradient-echo sequences have been more sensitive than T2-weighted images of spin echo sequences. In the present case, the superficial siderosis seems to be due to chronic tumoral hemorrhage. This phenomenon could be related to chemotherapy using CDDP and etoposide.