Intramedullary non-specific inflammatory lesion of thoracic spine: A case report

World Journal of Surgical Oncology

Case Report

Valerio Di Norcia¹  Roberto Delfini¹  Alessandro Landi¹  Antonio Santoro¹  Roberto Tarantino¹  Martina Cappelletti¹  Demo Eugenio Dugoni¹  Manila Antonelli² 

[1] Department of Neurosurgery, University of Rome Sapienza, Rome, Italy;Department of Pathological Anatomy, University of Rome Sapienza, Rome, Italy;

关键词: Multiple Sclerosis;    Sarcoidosis;    Toxoplasmosis;    Brucellosis;    Acute Disseminate Encephalomyelitis;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1477-7819-8-3

 received in 2009-10-21, accepted in 2010-01-15,  发布年份 2010

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThere are several non-neoplastic lesions which mimick intramedullary spinal cord neoplasm in their radiographic and clinical presentation. These can be classified as either infectious (TB, fungal, bacterial, parasytic, syphilis, CMV, HSV) and non-infectious (sarcoid, MS, myelitis, ADEM, SLE) inflammatory lesions, idiopathic necrotizing myelopathy, unusual vascular lesions and radiation myelopathy. Although biopsy may be indicated in many cases, an erroneous diagnosis of intramedullary neoplasm can often be eliminated pre-operatively.Case descriptionthe authors report a very rare case of intramedullary non-specific inflammatory lesion of unknown origin, without signs of infection or demyelinization, in a woman who showed no other evidence of systemic disease.ConclusionsIntramedullary lesions that mimick a tumor can be various and difficult to interpret. Preoperative MRI does not allow a certain diagnosis because these lesions have a very similar signal intensity pattern. Specific tests for infective pathologies are useful for diagnosis, but histological examination is essential for establishing a certain diagnosis. In our case the final histological examination and the specific tests that we performed have not cleared our doubts regarding the nature of the lesion that remains controversial.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Landi et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010