Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. May 26, 2020; 8(10): 1973-1978
Published online May 26, 2020. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v8.i10.1973
Positron emission tomography/computed tomography findings of multiple cystic lymphangiomas in an adult: A case report
Mo-Mo Sun, Jie Shen
Mo-Mo Sun, Jie Shen, Department of Nuclear Medicine and PET/CT Center, Tianjin First Center Hospital, Nankai University, Tianjin 300192, China
Author contributions: Sun MM made the diagnosis and contributed to manuscript drafting; Shen J was responsible for the revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content; all authors issued final approval for the version to be submitted.
Supported by the Tianjin Science and Technology Project, No. 16ZXMJSY00170.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Jie Shen, MD, PhD, Chief Doctor, Department of Nuclear Medicine and PET/CT Center, Tianjin First Center Hospital, Nankai University, No. 24, Fukang Road, Nankai District, Tianjin 300192, China. 5020200073@nankai.edu.cn
Received: February 5, 2020
Peer-review started: February 5, 2020
First decision: March 18, 2020
Revised: April 3, 2020
Accepted: April 21, 2020
Article in press: April 21, 2020
Published online: May 26, 2020
Processing time: 110 Days and 7.2 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Lymphangioma is a rare benign cystic tumor believed to be a proliferation of heterotopic lymphocytes. It is caused by congenital lymphatic dysplasia or other acquired factors related to surgery, trauma, infection, or cancer. In this article, we present the case of an adult patient who underwent multi-modal imaging and whose condition was finally confirmed to be multiple cystic lymphangiomas by pathological examination.

CASE SUMMARY

A 61-year-old man was referred to our hospital for having suffered from painless gross hematuria for 2 wk. Multiple masses rising from the retroperitoneum and pelvis were found incidentally by urinary ultrasonography. Contrast-enhanced abdominal-pelvic computed tomography showed multiple well-defined hypodense cystic lesions without enhancement. The lesions showed no uptake on F-18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography images. Exploratory laparotomy was performed, and the case was confirmed as multiple cystic lymphangiomas.

CONCLUSION

When retroperitoneal and pelvic masses are found, clinicians should always consider cystic lymphangioma when making a differential diagnosis.

Keywords: Lymphangioma; Neoplasms; Positron emission tomography computed tomography; Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; Case report

Core tip: Retroperitoneal and pelvic cystic lymphangioma, which is seldom seen in adults, has only rarely been reported. It is especially not often diagnosed by F-18-fluorodeoxyglucose (F-18 FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT). In addition, the features presented by F-18 FDG PET/CT are different. We here report an adult patient who underwent F-18 FDG PET/CT and was finally diagnosed with multiple cystic lymphangiomas, with an aim of improving the understanding of the disease.