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MRI Red Fibroid

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For our next case, this is of a

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24-year-old patient who presented

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to the ED with acute pelvic pain.

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We'll start here with our sagittal

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image of the uterus, and we'll go

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through the still images first.

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You can see a normal endometrium.

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We come up through the cervix here.

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The uterus so far, so good, looks okay.

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No real abnormality that we're seeing.

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We get a little bit further.

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We go into the right adnexa.

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We found a right ovary, which also looks normal,

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until we get to what is labeled

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the left ovary in this case.

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So we see a very heterogeneous

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structure in the left adnexa.

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Well-circumscribed, maybe some calcifications

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and it looks pretty solid; definitely

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has shadowing, both at the margins

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and from internal components of it.

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We don't see any normal ovarian tissue,

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and we really don't see any color

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Doppler blood flow within the structure.

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Initially, this was thought to be a

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solid tumor of the left ovary, and

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that's how it was initially read.

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Show you the cine clips as well,

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just to give you an idea of the

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scope and the size of the structure.

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You can see here, the uterus is right here.

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Maybe this is the broad ligament here, kind

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of draping over this left adnexal structure,

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but pretty limited with the

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ultrasound for what else you can do.

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Patient also got a CT because we were in the ED

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and needed to rule out other acute etiologies.

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And as we scroll down into the pelvis here,

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we have our uterus back here, and then

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we have this big structure right here.

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And you can even see a

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little follicle right there.

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Maybe another one back here.

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So this is your ovary back here.

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Your ovary is tucked back here, sort of

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behind the uterus and broad ligament.

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This mass lesion, that claw sign

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is not coming from the ovary.

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Therefore, you can say that this patient

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does not have an ovarian tumor or malignancy.

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This is coming from something else.

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And if you go back to that ultrasound,

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now that you have that in your mind that

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this is not an ovarian primary structure.

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You go back to this and you

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imagine, if I saw this placed in the

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uterus, what does this look like?

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And it looks like a pretty classic,

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albeit very large, fibroid.

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So, going back one more time to the CT,

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maybe this claw sign instead is coming

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from the uterus, or maybe even the

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broad ligament, hard to tell right here.

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Maybe this is an exophytic fibroid

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coming off of the uterus right here that

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has infarcted, and that's why it's hypo

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enhancing, why there was no color Doppler

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flow in the ultrasound, and that's why there's

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surrounding inflammatory change because

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this is an acute process and it's painful.

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So patients can present

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acutely when this happens.

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So we were able to fairly confidently

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diagnose that this was likely a hemorrhagic

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or acutely infarcting fibroid and said you

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can get an MRI as an outpatient in follow-up

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to prove this, but the patient does not have

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an ovarian malignancy; they were able to be

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discharged with that concern allayed at least.

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In her particular case, she did end up

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coming back for her MRI a few weeks later.

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And I'll bring over some

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of these images for you.

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Here is your pre-contrast T1.

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And we can see here, this is a

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fat-saturated pre-contrast T1.

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And here's our structure right here.

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It is intrinsically T1 bright, right?

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So that means it's either proteinaceous or

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hemorrhagic component internally within it.

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Here is our non-fat-saturated T2.

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You can see your beautiful

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endometrium right here.

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We actually have some classic appearing T2

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dark fibroids in the myometrium back here.

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Bye.

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But you have this T2 dark structure.

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Again, this is the same

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structure we're seeing on CT.

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We have a dark ring or rim around

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it, probably a hemocytin ring here.

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And then lastly, of course, we're

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going to skip the post-contrast

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because that's going to be bright.

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What you're going to want to look at is

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your subtraction weighted imaging, right?

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Because this is already intrinsically

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T1 bright, you give contrast,

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it's still going to be bright.

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So you really want that subtraction image.

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And as we get to that, we can see this is

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essentially a black hole, very, very minimal

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enhancement within that, if anything.

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And that confirms that this is an acutely

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infarcted fibroid or a red fibroid because

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it has hemorrhage internally within it.

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And that was the cause of the patient's pain.

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No ovarian mass; the patient was able to confidently

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be diagnosed with treatment just being to treat

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the pain until the pain goes away, basically.

Report

Faculty

Kathryn McGillen, MD

Assistant Professor of Radiology, Medical Director of Ultrasound

Penn State University Milton S Hershey Medical Center

Tags

Vascular

Uterus

Ultrasound

Non-infectious Inflammatory

Neoplastic

MRI

Idiopathic

Gynecologic (GYN)

CT

Body

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