Contrast Enhancement of Posterior Mediastinal Ganglioneuromas—Correlation between the Level of Enhancement and Histopathological Features

摘要

Purpose: Relationship between CT or MR images and histological findings, especially vascularity, has not been adequately evaluated. The purpose of this study was to investigate correlation between contrast enhancement on CT and MRI and histological findings in posterior mediastinal ganglioneuromas. Materials and Methods: Contrast-enhanced (CE) CT (n = 11) and CE MRI (n = 5) of 12 patients with ganglioneuroma were reviewed. The attenuation, signal intensity, and dynamic enhancement pattern of the tumors were evaluated. The vascularity was histologically evaluated by the numbers of vessels. Results: Enhancement on CE-CT was none, mild, moderate, and high enhancement in 5 (45%), 2 (18%), 3 (27%), and 1 (9%) of the 11 lesions, respectively. Dynamic MRI showed mild, moderate and high enhancement in 3 (60%), 1 (20%) and 1 (20%) cases, respectively. The level of contrast enhancement correlated well only with the number of capillary vessels (r = 0.79, P = 0.0037). Conclusion: The posterior mediastinal ganglioneuromas sometimes show insufficient enhancement particularly on CE-CT. The level of enhancement might correlate with the amount of capillary vessels.