Age/sex: 34-year-old male
Size: 17.9 x 15.5 x 6.0 cm
The upper portion of this cranium is discolored by dark purplish tissue slightly elevated above the adjacent normal bone. The specimen came from a thirty-four-year-old man who developed sudden right hemiplegia and died. Autopsy showed a recent intracerebral hemorrhage.
Angiomatosis
Angiomatosis is a rare condition in which tumor-like (non-cancerous) proliferations of small blood vessels are found in bones and sometimes visceral organs such as the spleen. In addition to the skeleton, autopsy of the patient in this case showed these abnormal vessels in the brain (which likely caused his intracerebral hemorrhage) and its connective tissue covering, the dura. A portion of the latter can be seen in another specimen.
Below: A portion of the the dura from the same patient also shows an area of angiomatosis (D = dura, arrows = angiomatosis).
Source: Maude Abbott Medical Museum collection.
