Computed Tomography Imaging Findings of Pulmonary Chondroma

Abstract

PURPOSE: To characterize the computed tomography (CT) imaging findings in patients with pulmonary chondroma. METHODS: We examined CT imaging findings of eight patients with histopathologically verified pulmonary chondroma. We assessed the location, size, shape, margins, amount of calcification, calcification pattern, and attenuation on precontrast and enhancement CT. RESULTS: All patients exhibited solitary, mildly lobulated pulmonary masses, which were located in the right lung in four cases and the left lung in four cases. The mean lesion size was 3.7 cm (range 0.9-10.7 cm). All eight tumours had a well-defined margin. On plain CT images, seven of the cases (87.5%) showed a mass with varying degrees of calcification, which included strip-like punctate (n=5) and ring (n=2) patterns. One patient with a large lesion (10.7 cm) showed chest wall adhesion. On contrast-enhanced CT images, all lesions demonstrated slight inhomogeneous enhancement ≤14 HU. CONCLUSION: CT is the reference standard diagnostic technique for locating pulmonary chondroma. In most cases, CT findings show some characteristics that are important in the diagnosis, surgical planning, and follow-up of the tumour.