Cholesterol Crystals as the Source of Diffuse Echoes in a Benign Renal Cyst

✍ Scribed by Jean Laperriegre; Serge Ethier; Andrea Boisjoly

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1984
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 347 KB
• Volume: 12
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0091-2751
• DOI: 10.1002/jcu.1870120315

✦ Synopsis

The presence of internal echoes of various amplitude in cystic lesions or fluid-filled anatomic structures have been explained by debris, fragmented blood clot, necrotic material, protein particles, or cholesterol crystals.' Previous reports have shown cholesterol crystals to be the source of diffuse or layered echoes in epidermoid cysts of the spleen,293 an ovarian ~y s t a d e n o m a , ~, ~ and in biliary ~l u d g e . ~' ~

We wish to describe a renal cyst appearing homogeneously echogenic on ultrasound examination because of the presence of cholesterol crystals. To our knowledge, no such case has been previously reported.