Value of tumor vessel sign in isolated circumscribed hypervascular abdominopelvic mesenchymal tumors on multidetector computed tomography.
OBJECTIVE
The objective was to determine the usefulness of the tumor vessel sign for differentiating the groups of circumscribed hypervascular abdominopelvic mesenchymal tumors.


METHODS
We enrolled a total of 4 groups such as patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) (26 patients), those with paraganglioma (9 patients), those with primary sarcomas (13 patients, excluding those with liposarcoma), and those with desmoid tumor (6 patients). The reviewers evaluated the presence of tumor vessels capable of directly tracing from the tumor margin to the named vessels.


RESULTS
Twenty-five of 26 GIST cases, all of the paragangliomas, all of the primary sarcomas, and all of the desmoid tumors showed a positive sign. For the sign confirming GIST, the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and diagnostic accuracy were 96.2%, 100%, 100%, 96.6%, and 98.1%, respectively. The values of the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve have good or excellent diagnostic accuracies.


CONCLUSIONS
The presence of the sign is considered to be helpful for differentiating the 4 groups of tumors.
From the Department of Radiology, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Ulsan University Hospital, Jeonha-dong, Dong-gu, Ulsan, Republic of Korea.
Jae Young
JY
Kim
Jong Hwa
JH
Lee
Jeong Gu
JG
Nam
Seong Hoon
SH
Choi
Young Woo
YW
Seo
Yoong Ki
YK
Jeong
D000008:Abdominal Neoplasms / Q000098:blood supply / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000792:Angiography / Q000379:methods*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D061330:Multidetector Computed Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D009372:Neoplasms, Connective Tissue / Q000098:blood supply / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D010386:Pelvic Neoplasms / Q000098:blood supply / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D055815:Young Adult