Fat-suppressed MRI images show high signal intensity of vaginal melanoma

Fat-suppressed MRI images show high signal intensity of vaginal melanoma
(Malignant Melanoma August 28, 2003)

"We report two cases of vaginal melanoma with magnetic resonance imaging findings," scientists in South Korea report.

"The first melanoma was a bilobular polypoid mass with melanotic and amelanotic components, which arose from the lateral wall of the vaginal canal. The melanotic melanoma showed high signal intensity (SI) on T1-weighted images and low SI on T2-weighted images, which was not suppressed by a fat-saturated sequence," wrote H. Kim and colleagues, Catholic University of Korea, Department of Radiology.

The researchers concluded: "Another melanoma showed a pale brown polypoid mass in the vagina, which revealed intermediate SI on T1-weighted images and high SI on T2-weighted images. On fat-suppressed images, both tumors were more clearly demonstrated with high SI."

Kim and colleagues published their study in the Journal of Computer Assisted Tomography (Magnetic resonance imaging of vaginal malignant melanoma. J Comput Assist Tomogr, 2003;27(3):357-360).

For more information, contact H. Kim, Catholic University of Korea, Department of Radiology, Daejeon St. Mary's Hospital, 520-2 Daeheung Dong, Taejon 301723, South Korea.

The information in this article comes under the major subject areas of Medical Devices and Gynecology. This article was prepared by Women's Health Weekly editors from staff and other reports.