Primary spinal cord desmoplastic astrocytoma in an adolescent: a rare tumour at rare site and rare age.
We report a case of a non-infantile primary intramedullary spinal cord desmoplastic astrocytoma in an 18-year-old girl who presented with spastic paraparesis. The patient had been unable to run for 1 year. Magnetic resonance imaging of her spine showed an intramedullary solid and cystic heterogeneously enhancing lesion located at T7-T8 level. Partial excision was performed. Histology revealed a desmoplastic astrocytoma. To the best of our knowledge, there is no report on primary desmoplastic astrocytoma of the spinal cord in literature. Nor has such a symptomatic tumour manifesting at the age of 18 years been documented.
Department of Imaging and Interventional Radiology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, Hong Kong. drdarshanab@gmail.com
Darshana D
DD
Rasalkar
Bhawan K
BK
Paunipagar
Alex
A
Ng
D000293:Adolescent; D001254:Astrocytoma / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D020336:Paraparesis, Spastic / Q000209:etiology; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000473:pathology*; D013120:Spinal Cord Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology*