A 61-year-old female patient presented with a dyspnea for several years. She had a history of lymphangioleiomyomatosis and had undergone a right nephrectomy for angiomyolipoma. Multiple hamartomatous lesions were detected in the mediastinal and cervical regions on control thoracic computed tomography (Fig. 1).
Angiomyolipoma is a tumoral lesion involving various combinations of smooth muscle, adipose tissue and vascular structures that most commonly affects the kidneys, but can also be observed in the liver, lung, lymph nodes, mediastinum, and retroperitoneal soft tissues. They are almost always benign neoplasms. However, they can cause massive or even fatal retroperitoneal hemorrhage. Lymphangioleiomyomatosis is a pathology that can diffusely affect the lungs and cause respiratory failure, spontaneous pneumothorax or chylothorax. There is the theory that lymphangioleiomyomatosis cells may actually arise from these angiomyolipomas.1,2 In these cases, resection for mediastinal and cervical angiomyolipomas can be considered, if possible.
FinancialThe authors received no financial support for the research and/or authorship of this article.
Conflict of interestThe authors declare that they have no conflict of interest to the publication of this article.
