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Imaging of the malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumour with emphasis οn ultrasonography: correlation with MRI

  • Case Report
  • Published:
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Abstract

Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumours affect 0.001 % of the population. The epithelioid subtype accounts for only 5 % of them. We herein present a patient with a palpable mass on the left calf, which was investigated by ultrasonography, ultrasonographically guided fine-needle biopsy and MRI. Ultrasonography estimated the size of the tumour and evaluated its echotexture. Doppler technique detected characteristic corkscrew-type blood vessel entering in the upper pole of the mass. T1-weighted, fat-suppression and gadolinium-enhanced MRI sequences confirmed ultrasonographic findings. In conclusion, although final diagnosis was established by biopsy, ultrasonography and MRI proved complementary in the characterization of the lesion and planning of surgery.

Riassunto

I Tumori Maligni della Guaina del Nervo Periferico (MPNST) colpiscono il 0,001 % della popolazione generale. Il sottotipo epitelioide rappresenta solo il 5 %. Presentiamo qui un paziente con una massa palpabile sul polpaccio sinistro, che e’ stata studiata con l’ecografia seguita dalla biopsia con ago sottile ecograficamente guidata ed MRI. Con l’ecografia sono state valutate le dimensioni del tumore e l’eterogeneita della sua consistenza. Con la tecnica Doppler e’ stato rivelato un vaso sanguigno di tipo caratteristico di “cavatappi” entrare nel polo superiore della massa. MRI sequenze T1 weighted, di soppressione del grasso e dopo somministrazione di mezzo di contrasto paramagnetico hanno confirmato i risultati ecografici. In conclusione, anche se la diagnosi finale e’ stata stabilita tramite biopsia, l’ecografia e la risonanza magnetica hanno fornito dati complementari riguardo alla caratterizzazione della lesione ed alla pianificazione dell’operazione.

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Conflict of interest

Vasileios Rafailidis, Theodora Kaziani, Costas Theocharides, Athanasios Papanikolaou, Dimitrios Rafailidis, declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Informed consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (5). All patients provided written informed consent to enrolment in the study and to the inclusion in this article of information that could potentially lead to their identification.

Human and animal studies

The study was conducted in accordance with all institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Radiology Department of General Hospital of Katerini, Katerini, Greece

    Vasileios Rafailidis

  2. Radiology Department of “GENNIMATAS” General Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Theodora Kaziani & Dimitrios Rafailidis

  3. Pathology Department of “GENNIMATAS” General Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Costas Theocharides & Athanasios Papanikolaou

Authors
  1. Vasileios Rafailidis
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  2. Theodora Kaziani
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  3. Costas Theocharides
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  4. Athanasios Papanikolaou
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  5. Dimitrios Rafailidis
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Correspondence to Vasileios Rafailidis.

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Rafailidis, V., Kaziani, T., Theocharides, C. et al. Imaging of the malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumour with emphasis οn ultrasonography: correlation with MRI. J Ultrasound 17, 219–223 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40477-014-0097-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40477-014-0097-2

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