title: The use of computed tomography to evaluate suspected mediastinal tumors.
abstract: Thirty patients with suspected mediastinal tumors were evaluated by computed tomography (CT) at UCLA Medical Center. Twenty patients with myasthenia gravis were examined for possible thymomas, benign and malignant; and 10 patients were studied for other mediastinal masses (including teratoma, seminoma, mediastinal lipomatosis, carcinoma, lymphoma, and paravertebral abscess). The CT scan was found useful in several respects: (1) yielding information not available by conventional radiographic techniques; (2) defining the anatomical location and extent of mediastinal tumors; (3) detecting pulmonary metastasis and involvement of mediastinal nodes in cases of malignancy; and (4) establishing the diagnosis of benign mediastinal fatty masses. On the basis of our early experience, we believe CT is a valuable adjunct in the preoperative assessment of patients with suspected mediastinal tumors.
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008479:Mediastinal Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D009157:Myasthenia Gravis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D013945:Thymoma / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D013953:Thymus Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed