A case of thoracic epidural angiolipoma: CT and MRI findings

• Published in: Radiology case reports Vol. 19; no. 12; pp. 5692 - 5695
• Main Authors: Fujioka, Kosuke, Katada, Yoshiaki, Mataki, Kentaro, Tsukanishi, Toshinori, Ishii, Tomoo, Morishita, Yukio, Sugahara, Shinji
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier Inc 01-12-2024; Elsevier
• Subjects: Angiolipoma; Case Report; MRI; Spinal angiolipoma; Spinal tumor; CT; Spinal tumor; MRI; Spinal angiolipoma; Angiolipoma
• ISSN: 1930-0433; 1930-0433
• DOI: 10.1016/j.radcr.2024.08.042

Spinal angiolipomas are rare benign tumors composed of mature adipose cells and blood vessel walls. We report the case of a patient with a spinal epidural angiolipoma who presented with paraplegia and was treated by urgent tumor resection and decompression. The patient was a 79-year-old man who presented to our hospital with a 6-month history of numbness in both lower limbs. Plain CT showed a tumor-like lesion with a predominantly fatty component on the dorsal epidural surface at the Th2-4 level, and contrast-enhanced CT showed a relatively strongly heterogeneously enhancing lesion. Gadolinium (Gd) -enhanced MRI also showed a well-defined spindle-shaped lesion measuring 2.4 × 1.0 × 6.5 cm in size that was visualized as a heterogeneous high signal intensity on both T1- and T2-weighted images and showed strong heterogeneous enhancement on fat-saturated Gd-enhanced T1-weighted images. We performed Th1-4 laminectomy and tumor resection and the patient was discharged home, with no numbness in the lower limbs.