title: Various image findings of skeletal muscle metastases with clinical correlation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this article is to describe the image findings of distant metastases to skeletal muscle with clinical correlation.
  
  
  METHODS
  The records of nine consecutive patients with biopsy-proven metastases to skeletal muscle from primary malignancies were retrospectively reviewed for clinical history and findings from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (eight cases) or computed tomography (CT) (one case). Clinical history, interval between detection of primary tumor and metastases, multiplicity, primary cell type of malignancy, site of metastases, and nature of masses on MRI or CT were evaluated by two musculoskeletal radiologists.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The most common symptom was a painful mass (78%), and the most common site was the thigh (78%). Four patients showed a single mass (44%). There was previous malignancy in five patients (56%), but four patients had no prior malignancy (44%). The time interval between the detection of primary malignancy and metastases was 8 months to 15 years. Mean size of metastases was 5.1 +/- 2.2 cm. The most common primary tumor was of the lung (two patients) and kidney (two patients), and the most common cell type was adenocarcinoma. On images, necrosis and peritumoral edema were relatively frequent. All cases showed good enhancement. of contrast medium.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Skeletal muscle metastases show good enhancement of contrast medium and frequent edema and necrosis. The possibility of skeletal muscle metastases should be borne in mind for patients with painful and multiple muscle masses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, The Catholic University of Korea, College of Medicine, St. Paul's Hospital, Jeonnong-2-dong, Dongdaemun-gu, 620-56, Seoul, 130-709, Korea. leebae@catholic.ac.kr
authors.forename: Bae Young
authors.initials: BY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Jung Eun
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Jeong Mi
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Won Hee
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Jee
authors.forename: Jee Young
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Kang Hoon
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Hyun Sook
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Kyung Sup
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Song
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019042:Muscle Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000556:secondary*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*