Clinical and diagnostic problems in angiomyolipoma of the kidney

: 29 cases of angiomyolipoma (AML) reported in the paper illustrate clinical pictures and difficulties in this disease diagnosis. It is shown that when AML overgrows 5 cm in size it often provokes pain (13 cases), which ranks the first among AML symptoms. Ultrasonic differential diagnosis is not easy in large bleeding AML, in extrarenal AML location, whereas well and poorly vascularized tumors, the absence in them of clear-cut spiral arteries or aneurysm-like cavities cause much trouble for AML angiographic diagnosis. For the above causes computed tomography is also likely to provide misdiagnosis. A comprehensive approach to AML preoperative diagnosis brings about satisfactory results in 80% of the cases.