Jitendra Kumar Singh Chaudhary1, Rasesh Vyas2, Avichala Taxak3
BACKGROUND
The mediastinum is demarcated by the pleural cavities laterally, the thoracic inlet superiorly and the diaphragm inferiorly. It is further divided into anterior, middle and posterior compartments by many anatomists.1 CT imaging allows early diagnosis and more specific characterization of anterior mediastinal masses than is possible with plain film radiographs. This study describes state-of-the-art CT imaging of the mediastinum.1 Detection, diagnosis, staging, and follow-up of anterior mediastinal masses is important and has been significantly improved with CT imaging.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The study was conducted on 50 patients on SIEMENS 16 Slice CT SCAN Machine in our department of Radio-diagnosis at C. U. Shah Medical College and Hospital from May 2014 to Oct 2015. The patients were chosen on the basis of clinical findings and suspected mediastinal lesion on X-rays. The study is completely an observational type of study.
RESULTS
On the basis of our study, it was found out that maximum number of patients were of more than 61 years of age with common symptoms of cough with chest pain and breathlessness. Common sites of mediastinal pathology is in middle compartment with maximum number of lesions were of malignant nature either extending from perihilar region or in mediastinal proper some of them showing metastasis. Most of the lesions were solid in nature showing heterogeneous contrast enhancement showing vascular and adjacent structure involvement. The common benign lesions were goiter, hernia and infective collection.
CONCLUSION
The mediastinum represents a wide variety of pathologies ranging from congenital lesions to malignant tumours. Conventional radiographs have limited spectrum in diagnosing mediastinal pathologies, thus CT plays an important role in proper delineation of the lesion and defining the anatomical details of the surrounding structures involved by the lesion. With the help of CT and its excellent high resolution images it is now possible to locate even smaller lesions without any obscureness.
