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J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2004;128:786-788
© 2004 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery

Brief communication

Giant superior mediastinal angioleiomyoma

^a Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, Australia
^b Department of Radiology, Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, Australia,
^c Department of Anatomical Pathology, Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, Australia

Received for publication February 22, 2004; accepted for publication March 10, 2004.

^* Address for reprints: Marian Vrtik, MBBS, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Royal Perth Hospital, Wellington Street Campus, Box X2213 GPO, Perth 6847, Western Australia, Australia
maros96@hotmail.com

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

We report a case of a large, symptomatic angioleiomyoma originating from the right superior mediastinum with clinical and radiographic features suggestive of an invasive malignant process that was initially thought to be unsuitable for curative resection. The tumor was successfully resected through a right posterolateral thoracotomy, with an excellent postoperative recovery.

Clinical summary

A 37-year-old white woman presented in May 2003 with a short history of productive cough and mild hemoptysis that failed to settle after an episode of upper respiratory tract infection. Her other symptoms included shortness of breath on moderate exertion, tiredness, and loss of appetite with minimal weight loss. Clinical examination was unremarkable, except for dullness to percussion and reduced breath sounds in the right upper zone. There were no abnormalities noted on both biochemical and hematologic analyses of the patient's blood.

Chest radiography showed a large opacity in the right upper zone (Figure 1). A computed tomographic scan–guided core biopsy, reported as smooth muscle tumor, could not exclude malignancy. A magnetic resonance imaging study revealed a right intrathoracic tumor with a well-defined thin capsule with no demonstrable . . . [Full Text of this Article]