DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2016.v04i12.040

Pages: 4388-4393

Mediastinal masses represent wide diversity of disease state which may be completely asymptomatic or present with symptoms and signs suggesting intrathoracic pathology. Chest X ray can be used to detect mediastinal mass but CT is used for further characterization of mediastinal mass. Patients from our hospital who were suspected to have a mediastinal mass either on clinical examination or on the basis of an abnormal chest radiograph were included in the study. The patients were subjected to a thorough history and clinical examination. CT examination of the patient was done using a GE LIGHT SPEED 16 SLICE CT SCANNER. Our study included a total of 50 cases, 31 males and 19 females. Anterior mediastinum is the most commonly involved compartment (n=27, 42.2%), followed by middle (n=23, 35.9%) and posterior mediastinum (n=14, 21.8%). Thymic masses (n=7, 46.6%), Aneurysms (n=6, 54.5%) and Nerve sheath tumours (n=4, 33.3%) are the most common masses to have isolated compartmental involvement of anterior, middle and posterior mediastinum respectively. The majority of the mediastinal masses are well defined (n=36, 72%), with soft tissue (n=34, 68%) attenuation on plain CT, showing heterogeneous enhancement (n=22, 44%) on administration of intravenous contrast. Computed tomography is an important modality in the evaluation of mediastinal masses for their exact localization, analyzing their morphology and arriving at a provisional diagnosis for optimal patient management.