13227              LEUKAEMIC INFILTRATION AT THE BASE OF THE TONGUE

The patient was a man aged 36 who presented with pallor and a severe bleeding tendency.  The blood picture showed acute myeloid leukaemia and the platelets numbered 30x10³/ml.  He died from intracerebral haemorrhage.  At postmortem there were many other haemorrhages throughout the body, the spleen was moderately enlarged (540 gms) and occasional lymph nodes were slightly enlarged.

The specimen is the tongue and pharyngeal structures.  There is marked leukaemic infiltration at the base of the tongue to produce 2 pale lobulated symmetrical pads of tissue.  Histology shows diffuse infiltration by leukaemic leucocytes.