Discussion
Diagnosis With Brief Discussion
- Diagnosis
- Pulmonary epithelioid hemangioendothelioma
- Radiologic Findings
- Fig 1. Chest PA shows multiple pulmonary nodules and mild elevation of right hemidiaphragm.
Fig 2 Lung and mediastinal window (1.0-mm section thickness) images show multiple small well-defined nodules in both lungs. Some of the nodules show internal calcifications.
Fig 3. PET/CT images depict scanty FDG uptake in bilateral lung nodules.
- Brief Review
- Pulmonary epithelioid hemangioendothelioma (PEH) is a rare, low- to intermediate-grade tumor of endothelial origin with features of epithelioid and histiocytoid cells. There are three distinctive CT patterns:
1) Multiple pulmonary nodules (mimicking hematogenous metastases), with calcifications occasionally seen within the nodules
2) Multiple pulmonary reticulonodular opacities (mimicking hematolymphangitic metastases), which could be associated with interlobular septal thickening and ground-glass opacities and may show poor prognosis
3) Diffuse infiltrative pleural thickening (mimicking malignant pleural mesothelioma), which is seen less frequently and predominantly in older men and shows the most aggressive clinical course
The treatment of PEH is not standardized. Surgery alone is indicated in the presence of a single pulmonary nodule or unilateral multiple nodules. Lung transplantation should be considered in patients with vascular infiltration. Various chemotherapies have been reported for unrespectable or metastatic PEH, with variable effectiveness.
- References
- 1. Kim EY, Kim TS, Han J, Choi JY, Kwon OJ, Kim J. Thoracic epithelioid hemangioendothelioma: imaging and pathologic features Acta Radiol. 2011 Mar 1;52(2):161-6. doi: 10.1258/ar.2010.100292.
2. Jung Han Han, Tae Jung Kim, Kyung Soo Lee, Tae Sung Kim, Byung-Tae Kim. Epithelioid hemangioendothelioma in the thorax: Clinicopathologic, CT, PET, and prognostic features Medicine (2016) 95:30(e4348)
3. Riccardo Cazzuffi, Nunzio Calia, Franco Ravenna, et al., “Primary Pulmonary Epithelioid Hemangioendothelioma: A Rare Cause of PET-Negative Pulmonary Nodules,” Case Reports in Medicine, vol. 2011, Article ID 262674, 6 pages, 2011. doi:10.1155/2011/262674
- Keywords
- Lung, Neoplasm,