Bladder paraganglioma: CT and MR imaging characteristics in 16 patients
Article Category: Research Article
Published Online: Dec 30, 2021
Page range: 46 - 53
Received: Aug 03, 2021
Accepted: Nov 24, 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/raon-2021-0055
© 2022 Jing Zhang, Xu Bai, Jing Yuan, Xiaojing Zhang, Wei Xu, Huiyi Ye, Haiyi Wang, published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Background
Bladder paraganglioma (BPG) is a rare extra-adrenal pheochromocytoma with variable symptoms and easy to be misdiagnosed and mishandled. The aim of the study was to document the imaging features of BPG using computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
Patients and methods
We retrospectively enrolled consecutive patients with pathology-proven BPG, who underwent CT or MRI examinations before surgery between October 2009 and October 2017. The clinical characteristics, CT, and MRI features of the patients were described and analysed.
Results
A total of 16 patients with 16 bladder tumours (median age 51 years, 9 females) were included. Among them, 13 patients underwent CT examinations and eight patients underwent MRI examinations preoperatively. Tumour diameters ranged from 1.6−5.4 cm. Most of the tumours grew into the bladder cavity (n = 11) with oval shapes (n = 10) and well-defined margins (n = 14). Intratumour cystic degeneration or necrosis (n = 2) was observed. Two lesions showed peripheral tissue invasion, suggesting malignant BPGs. All 13 lesions imaged with CT exhibited slight hypoattenuation and moderate to marked enhancement. Compared to the
Conclusions
BPGs are mostly oval-shaped, broadly-based and hypervascular bladder tumours with hypoattenuation on non-contrast CT, T2 hyperintensity, slight T1 hyperintensity compared to the muscle, marked restricted diffusion on DWI. Peripheral tissue invasion can suggest malignancy of the BPGs. All of these features contribute to preoperative decision-making.