[Experiences of diagnosing and treating atypical renal angiomyolipoma--a report of 22 cases].
OBJECTIVE
Renal angiomyolipoma (RMAL) is a benign renal tumor. The patients could be rechecked regularly or treated with operation. The result of operation is good. But the atypical cases are easy to be misdiagnosed. This study was to summarize our experiences of diagnosing and treating atypical RMAL.


METHODS
Clinical data of 22 atypical RMAL patients, treated in Cancer Center of Sun Yat-sen University from Jan. 1999 to Nov. 2005, were analyzed.


RESULTS
Of the 22 cases of atypical RMAL, 7 were misdiagnosed as renal carcinoma, and treated with radical nephrectomy (6 cases) and nephron-sparing operation (1 case)û 1 was misdiagnosed as renal pelvic carcinoma, and treated with radical resection; 14 were correctly diagnosed through analyzing the image information of computed tomography (CT), B-ultrasound (B-US), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), intravenous urography (IVU), and contrast-enhanced ultrasound, and treated with nephron-sparing operation (9 cases) and nephrectomy (3 cases), or were rechecked during follow-up (2 cases). All cases were confirmed as RMAL by postoperative pathology. No local relapse occurred during follow-up.


CONCLUSIONS
Careful analysis of image information can help to avoid misdiagnosis of atypical RMAL. The prognosis of RMAL after appropriate treatment is good.
Yang
Jian-An
JA
State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Guangzhou, Guangdong, PR China.
Qin
Zi-Ke
ZK
Zhou
Fang-Jian
FJ
Dai
Yu-Ping
YP
Han
Hui
H
Liu
Zhuo-Wei
ZW
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D018207:Angiomyolipoma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery*; D001706:Biopsy; D002292:Carcinoma, Renal Cell / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007668:Kidney / Q000473:pathology; D007680:Kidney Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery*; D007682:Kidney Pelvis / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009392:Nephrectomy / Q000379:methods; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014463:Ultrasonography