Unusual malignant paraganglioma of the anterior mediastinum: CT and MR findings.

Aortico-pulmonary paraganglioma, or aortic body tumor, is an unusual tumor of the anterior compartment of the mediastinum [l-6]. It originates from the branchiomeric group of paraganglia which is anatomically related to the pulmonary artery and aortic arch k31. From the few cases in the literature, high vascularity is reported to be a typical radiographic feature, as demonstrated by dynamic CT scan and angiography [4,6,7]. A case of mediastinal paraganglioma, characterized only by slight and inhomogeneous enhancement on contrast enhanced CT is presented. Moreover, to our knowledge, there are only a few reports about MR appearance of mediastinal paraganglioma [ 81.