[Thorotrastosis: survey and CT pattern (author's transl)].

Following a historical survey of the discovery of late damages caused by the contrast medium Thorotrast which was commercially available from 1930 to 1951, the article reports on the possibilities of identifying Thorotrast in the computer tomogram. In a male patient aged 60 years, the size and anatomic dimensions of a hepatocholangiolar carcinoma induced by Thorotrast was determined by computer tomography 35 years after carotid angiography. Over and above this, a 20 times increased pathologic tissue density was measured in parapancreatic lymph nodes, whereas the density of tissue was only slightly increased in the liver and twice the normal value in the spleen. The sclerosing and malignoma-inducing properties of Thorotrast as well as the pathogenesis of late damages by foreign body irritation and chronic internal radiation, are discussed.