[Imaging diagnosis of aggressive fibromatosis and the MRT-pathological correlation]

Aggressive fibromatoses (desmoid tumours) tend to grow in an infiltrative and destructive manner without metastases. Computed tomography of aggressive fibromatoses yields no uniform attenuation pattern. The tumours are typically isodense when no contrast medium is used and enhance clearly to hyperdense during infusion of contrast medium. In magnetic resonance tomography (MRT) a high signal (long T2) on T2-weighted pulse sequences as well as an accumulation of i.v. Gd-DTPA seems to be the characteristic appearance of aggressive fibromatoses, although different signal intensities can be seen. The MRT histopathologic correlation shows increasing signal intensities on T2-weighted sequences dependent on an increment in cellular content of the tumours. Only histopathological methods can provide a definite diagnosis.