Pleural mesothelioma associated with massive hepatic calcification and unusual metastases

ABSTRACT

A case of diffuse, malignant, pleural mesothelioma is reported in a 60-year-old Negro man. The clinical picture was most unusual; when the patient presented initially with chest pain, the radiographic appearances in the chest were normal, but extensive liver calcification was demonstrated. The latter was subsequently shown to be caused by metastases from the mesothelioma which took 2 more years to produce clinical and radiographic changes in the chest. There was microscopic evidence that the extensive liver calcification was dystrophic in nature and had resulted from marked degenerative changes and necrosis in the metastatic malignant pleural mesothelioma. Radiographs of the skeleton revealed focal, translucent lesions with sclerotic margins in the right seventh rib and the right iliac. Microscopic examination showed these bony lesions to be metastases. No previous report of secondary deposits in bone producing such radiographic appearances could be found in the literature (AU)