Primary spinal cord desmoplastic astrocytoma in an adolescent: a rare tumour at rare site and rare age

We report a case of a non-infantile primary intramedullary spinal cord desmoplastic astrocytoma in an 18-year-old girl who presented with spastic paraparesis. The patient had been unable to run for 1 year. Magnetic resonance imaging of her spine showed an intramedullary solid and cystic heterogeneou...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Hong Kong medical journal = Xianggang yi xue za zhi 2012-06, Vol.18 (3), p.253-255
Main Authors: Rasalkar, Darshana D, Paunipagar, Bhawan K, Ng, Alex
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Astrocytoma - complications
Astrocytoma - diagnosis
Female
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Paraparesis, Spastic - etiology
Spinal Cord - pathology
Spinal Cord Neoplasms - complications
Spinal Cord Neoplasms - pathology
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Summary:We report a case of a non-infantile primary intramedullary spinal cord desmoplastic astrocytoma in an 18-year-old girl who presented with spastic paraparesis. The patient had been unable to run for 1 year. Magnetic resonance imaging of her spine showed an intramedullary solid and cystic heterogeneously enhancing lesion located at T7-T8 level. Partial excision was performed. Histology revealed a desmoplastic astrocytoma. To the best of our knowledge, there is no report on primary desmoplastic astrocytoma of the spinal cord in literature. Nor has such a symptomatic tumour manifesting at the age of 18 years been documented.
ISSN:1024-2708
2226-8707