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Anterior mediastinal mass

Last revised by Craig Hacking ◉ on 26 Nov 2024

Citation, DOI, disclosures and article data

Citation:

Gaillard F, Hacking C, Sharma R, et al. Anterior mediastinal mass. Reference article, Radiopaedia.org (Accessed on 11 Dec 2024) https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-911

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-911

Permalink:

https://radiopaedia.org/articles/911

rID:

911

Article created:

2 May 2008, Frank Gaillard ◉ ◈

Disclosures:

At the time the article was created Frank Gaillard had no recorded disclosures.

View Frank Gaillard's current disclosures

Last revised:

26 Nov 2024, Craig Hacking ◉

Disclosures:

At the time the article was last revised Craig Hacking had the following disclosures:

Philips Australia, Paid speaker at Philips Spectral CT events (ongoing)

These were assessed during peer review and were determined to not be relevant to the changes that were made.

View Craig Hacking's current disclosures

Revisions:

19 times, by 16 contributors - see full revision history and disclosures

Systems:

Chest, Oncology

Sections:

Gamuts

Tags:

mediastinum, oncology, anterior mediastinal mass

Synonyms:

Anterosuperior mediastinal mass
Anterior mediastinal mass (DDx)
Anterosuperior mediastinal mass
Differential of an anterosuperior mediastinal mass
Anterior mediastinal masses
Differential diagnosis for an anterosuperior mediastinal mass

Anterior mediastinal masses can be caused by neoplastic and non-neoplastic pathology. These masses arise in the anterior mediastinum, that portion of the mediastinum anterior to the pericardium and below the level of the clavicles.

Epidemiology

The prevalence of anterior mediastinal masses on CT is estimated at 0.4-0.9% ⁴.

Differential diagnosis

The differential diagnosis for an anterior mediastinal mass includes ^1-3:

thymus
- thymoma: most common primary neoplasm of the anterosuperior mediastinum
- invasive thymoma
- thymic carcinoma
- thymolipoma/thymoliposarcoma
- thymic cyst
- thymic hyperplasia
- thymic carcinoid
thyroid and parathyroid masses
lymphoma
- Hodgkin lymphoma
- non-Hodgkin lymphoma
germ cell tumours
- mediastinal seminoma
- non-seminomatous germ cell tumours (NSGCT)
  - mediastinal teratoma
    - mature: 75% of mediastinal germ cell tumours
    - immature
    - teratocarcinoma (malignant teratoma)
  - mediastinal embryonal carcinoma
  - mediastinal yolk sac tumour
  - mediastinal choriocarcinoma
  - mediastinal mixed cell type germ cell tumour
vascular masses
- thoracic aortic aneurysm
- subclavian artery aneurysm

A handy mnemonic to remember the major categories is the 5 Ts.

Quiz questions

References

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