Soft-tissue tumors and tumorlike lesions: a systematic imaging approach.
Soft-tissue lesions are frequently encountered by radiologists in everyday clinical practice. Characterization of these soft-tissue lesions remains problematic, despite advances in imaging. By systematically using clinical history, lesion location, mineralization on radiographs, and signal intensity characteristics on magnetic resonance images, one can (a) determine the diagnosis for the subset of determinate lesions that have characteristic clinical and imaging features and (b) narrow the differential diagnosis for lesions that demonstrate indeterminate characteristics. If a lesion cannot be characterized as a benign entity, the lesion should be reported as indeterminate, and the patient should undergo biopsy to exclude malignancy.
Department of Radiology, Section of Musculoskeletal Imaging, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, 330 Brookline Ave, Boston, MA 02215, USA. jswu@bidmc.harvard.edu
Jim S
JS
Wu
Mary G
MG
Hochman
D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D045888:Ganglion Cysts / Q000175:diagnosis; D006391:Hemangioma / Q000175:diagnosis; D006406:Hematoma / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D008067:Lipoma / Q000175:diagnosis; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009221:Myositis Ossificans / Q000175:diagnosis; D018317:Nerve Sheath Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D009463:Neuroma / Q000175:diagnosis; D012983:Soft Tissue Neoplasms / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis*