Case of the month: January 1998--43 year old male with radicular pain.
A 43-year-old male presented with progressively worsening right lower extremity pain. MRI of the spine showed a discrete intradural, extramedullary, homogeneously enhancing, sausage-shaped mass at L1-L2, noted intraoperatively to expand the filum terminale. Gross, histological, and electron microscopic findings were those of a paraganglioma. The case is used to discuss the differential diagnosis for sausage-shaped tumors of the filum terminale.
Department of Pathology (Neuropathology), UCSD Medical Center, San Diego, CA, USA.
N C
NC
Karpinski
W R
WR
Taylor
L A
LA
Hansen
D000328:Adult; D002420:Cauda Equina; D006801:Humans; D007866:Leg; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009408:Nerve Compression Syndromes / Q000150:complications*; D010146:Pain / Q000209:etiology*; D010235:Paraganglioma / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D010524:Peripheral Nervous System Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000648:ultrastructure