Thalamic neuroaxonal dystrophy and dementia in Hodgkin's disease.

The brain of a patient with Hodgkin's disease and dementia showed numerous dystrophic axons in the thalamus. In absence of lymphomatous cellular infiltration, necrosis, hemorrhage, demyelination, neuronal loss, or infection by opportunistic organisms, the axonal dystrophy in this patient appeared to be directly related to the Hodgkin's disease itself. Moreover, dementia as a nonmetastatic complication of Hodgkin's disease may have been the result of the thalamic axonal dystrophy.