shu-508 and Hamartoma

A 49 year old male with carcinoma of the esophagus was staged using conventional US of the abdomen. US revealed signs of cirrhosis and a hyporeflexive focal liver lesion of about 5 mm in diameter was found. Low-MI contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) with SonoVue (Bracco, Milano, Italy) showed an enhancement pattern which was typical for benign liver lesions while high-MI CEUS with Levovist (Schering, Berlin, Germany) revealed a contrast defect in the liver late phase (4:30 min p. i.) which is typical for a malignant lesion. Due to these findings the lesion was evaluated as a potentially malignant lesion and a biopsy was performed. Histology showed a benign biliary hamartoma and incomplete cirrhosis. The findings confirmed that liver-specific contrast agents have the ability to detect very small focal liver lesions not derived from hepatic tissue but may lead to a misinterpretation as a malignant lesion. Nevertheless biliary duct adenomas are benign lesions with almost the same perfusion properties as normal liver parenchyma. Therefore, while using SonoVue, such a misinterpretation of these very common but in most cases very small and not detectable lesions seems unlikely.

Topics: Adenoma, Bile Duct; Bile Duct Diseases; Bile Duct Neoplasms; Bile Ducts, Intrahepatic; Biopsy, Fine-Needle; Contrast Media; Diagnosis, Differential; Esophageal Neoplasms; Hamartoma; Humans; Incidental Findings; Liver Neoplasms; Male; Middle Aged; Neoplasm Staging; Phospholipids; Polysaccharides; Sensitivity and Specificity; Sulfur Hexafluoride; Ultrasonography, Doppler, Duplex

We presented a case of splenic hamartoma. A 12-year-old girl has had an abdominal pain since 9 years of age. Contrast-enhanced computed tomography scan at a local hospital revealed heterogeneous enhancement of a mass which is 5 cm in diameter, located near the surface of the spleen, diagnosed as hemangioma. She had an investigation with Levovist-enhanced ultrasonography and superparamagnetic iron oxide-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging on T2-weighted gradient-echo imaging, which showed a hypervascular echoic mass and a decrease of signal intensity. The imaging diagnosis was splenic hamartoma. She underwent laparoscopic splenectomy to prevent the spontaneous rupture. The splenic artery at the pancreas body was exposed, and doubly ligated by vessel clip and furthermore ligated by 3-0 silk. At the splenic hilum, the splenic artery and vein were dissected with the Endo GIA vascular linear cutting stapler. The spleen was captured into the Endocatch II retrieval bag and removed from a transverse lower abdominal (suprapubic) incision extended up 7 cm in length through a port site. In pathological findings, the tumor was compatible with hamartoma. Splenic hamartomas in pediatric patients have been described extremely rare. In clinical symptoms, spontaneously ruptured splenic hamartoma has been rarely reported.

Topics: Abdominal Pain; Child; Contrast Media; Female; Hamartoma; Humans; Image Enhancement; Laparoscopy; Ligation; Lipopolysaccharides; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Polysaccharides; Spleen; Splenic Artery; Splenic Neoplasms; Splenic Vein; Tomography, X-Ray Computed; Ultrasonography

Splenic hamartoma is a rare benign tumor of the spleen. It is usually found incidentally at autopsy or splenectomy. We report a case of splenic hamartoma that was discovered during medical workup for vague upper abdominal pain. Abdominal sonography demonstrated a well-demarcated, slightly hypoechoic splenic solid mass; the mass was markedly enhanced on color Doppler sonography after injection of microbubble contrast agent. This finding may help to distinguish splenic hamartomas from other relatively common splenic tumors, such as hemangiomas or metastases.

Topics: Contrast Media; Diagnosis, Differential; Hamartoma; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Polysaccharides; Splenic Diseases; Ultrasonography