Mediastinal involvement in lymphangiomatosis: a previously unreported MRI sign

Multifocal lymphangiomatosis is a rare systemic disorder affecting children. Due to its rarity and wide spectrum of clinical, histological and imaging features, establishing the diagnosis of multifocal lymphangiomatosis can be challenging.

The purpose of this study was to describe a new imaging sign in this disorder: paraspinal soft tissue and signal abnormality at MRI.

We retrospectively reviewed the imaging, clinical and histopathological findings in a cohort of eight children with thoracic involvement from this condition.

Evidence of paraspinal chest disease was identified at MRI and CT in all eight of these children. The changes comprise heterogeneous intermediate-to-high signal parallel to the thoracic vertebrae on T2-weighted sequences at MRI, with abnormal paraspinal soft tissue at CT and plain radiography.

Multifocal lymphangiomatosis is a rare disorder with a broad range of clinicopathological and imaging features. MRI allows complete evaluation of disease extent without the use of ionising radiation and has allowed us to describe a previously unreported imaging sign in this disorder, namely, heterogeneous hyperintense signal in abnormal paraspinal tissue on T2-weighted images.