Original ContributionsMalignant melanoma of the sinonasal cavity: Explanation of magnetic resonance signal intensities with histopathologic characteristics†,‡,*
Section snippets
Materials and methods
We retrospectively reviewed the MR images of 11 patients who had surgical-resection- (n = 4) or biopsy- (n = 7) proven malignant melanoma of the sinonasal cavity at our hospital between January of 1994 and October of 1998. The series included 5 men and 6 women, aged between 35 to 77 years old, with mean age of 59 years. Ten of 11 patients had primary malignant melanoma of the sinonasal cavity. For these patients, we performed the physical and ophthalmoscopic examination on the skin and eye
Results
The tumors were located in the nasal cavity (n = 5), the maxillary sinus (n = 2), and the ethmoid sinus (n = 1). In 3 patients, the original site of lesions could not be determined because each tumor was extensively involved in multiple anatomic structures. In the patient in case 3, involved sites were right nasal cavity, right ethmoid sinus, right maxillary sinus, right orbit, and soft tissue beyond bony wall of the right maxillary sinus. In the patient in case 5, the right maxillary sinus,
Discussion
Sinonasal melanomas arise from melanocytes that have migrated during embryological development from the neural crest to the mucosa of the nose and sinuses. The most common site of origin is the nasal septum, closely followed by the lateral nasal wall, and then the middle and inferior turbinates. Melanomas of the nasal cavity are 2 or 3 times more common than those of the sinuses. The antrum is the site of origin in 80% of paranasal sinus cases. In addition, disease is too extensive in certain
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2014, European Annals of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck DiseasesCitation Excerpt :According to some authors, a spontaneous high-intensity signal on T1 with a low-intensity signal on T2 would be characteristic of melanoma. This unusual appearance, sometimes observed with other types of tumours (angiosarcoma, cylindroma and aesthesioneuroblastoma) appears to be related to the high melanin content and/or bleeding inside the tumour [18,19]. T2-weighted MRI can distinguish tumour invasion from paranasal sinus fluid retention.
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Department of Radiology, Seoul National University College of Medicine; the
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Department of Pathology, Seoul City Boramae Hospital; and the ‡Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
- *
Address reprint requests to Moon Hee Han, MD, Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Seoul National University Hospital, 28 Yongon-Dong, Chongno-Ku, Seoul 110-744, Korea.