The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Vol 27, 305-311, Copyright © 1979 by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons
The use of computed tomography to evaluate suspected mediastinal tumors
JJ Livesay, JH Mink, HJ Fee, ME Bein, WF Sample and DG Mulder
Thirty patients with suspected mediastinal tumors were evaluated by
computed tomography (CT) at UCLA Medical Center. Twenty patients with
myasthenia gravis were examined for possible thymomas, benign and
malignant; and 10 patients were studied for other mediastinal masses
(including teratoma, seminoma, mediastinal lipomatosis, carcinoma,
lymphoma, and paravertebral abscess). The CT scan was found useful in
several respects: (1) yielding information not available by conventional
radiographic techniques; (2) defining the anatomical location and extent of
mediastinal tumors; (3) detecting pulmonary metastasis and involvement of
mediastinal nodes in cases of malignancy; and (4) establishing the
diagnosis of benign mediastinal fatty masses. On the basis of our early
experience, we believe CT is a valuable adjunct in the preoperative
assessment of patients with suspected mediastinal tumors.