Value of tumor vessel sign in isolated circumscribed hypervascular abdominopelvic mesenchymal tumors on multidetector computed tomography.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: The objective was to determine the usefulness of the tumor vessel sign for differentiating the groups of circumscribed hypervascular abdominopelvic mesenchymal tumors. METHODS: We enrolled a total of 4 groups such as patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) (26 patients), those with paraganglioma (9 patients), those with primary sarcomas (13 patients, excluding those with liposarcoma), and those with desmoid tumor (6 patients). The reviewers evaluated the presence of tumor vessels capable of directly tracing from the tumor margin to the named vessels. RESULTS: Twenty-five of 26 GIST cases, all of the paragangliomas, all of the primary sarcomas, and all of the desmoid tumors showed a positive sign. For the sign confirming GIST, the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and diagnostic accuracy were 96.2%, 100%, 100%, 96.6%, and 98.1%, respectively. The values of the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve have good or excellent diagnostic accuracies. CONCLUSIONS: The presence of the sign is considered to be helpful for differentiating the 4 groups of tumors.