Bone metastases from head and neck paragangliomas: Uncommon MR findings in an uncommon condition—Report of three cases
✍ Scribed by Michèle Duet; Philippe Herman; Michel Wassef; Patrice Tran Ba Huy; Jean-Denis Laredo
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2006
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 706 KB
- Volume
- 24
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1053-1807
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✦ Synopsis
Abstract
Malignancy (defined as metastatic disease) has been reported in nearly 5% of head and neck paragangliomas. Metastases preferentially target the lymph nodes, lung, liver, or bone. We describe three patients with multiple silent bone metastases exhibiting a fatty halo at MRI that coexisted with expansive bone lesions. In all cases, ^123^I‐metaiodobenzylguanidine (^123^MIBG) scintigraphy showed no abnormal tracer uptake, whereas ^111^In‐pentetreotide scintigraphy visualized a few silent bone metastases. These findings indicate that MRI should be included in the staging of paraganglioma patients with risk factors for malignancy. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.