Thymoma and paraganglioma are known causes of mediastinal masses, the latter being extremely rare. Thymomas arise from remnant thymic tissue in the anterior mediastinum; whereas, thoracic paragangliomas arise from para-aortic or para-vertebral sympathetic chain ganglion (derivatives of embryonic neural crest) in the middle or posterior mediastinum. We report a case of a middle-aged woman with two mediastinal masses, originally believed to be a single tumor or primary malignancy with adjacent metastasis on Computed Tomography (CT) that were further delineated with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and [68Ga]-DOTA-(Tyr3)-octreotate (DOTA-TATE) Positron Emission Tomography-Computed Tomography (PET-CT) and surgical pathology as two distinct entities: left epicardial paraganglioma and anterior mediastinal thymoma. A comprehensive discussion of both entities is included.
Keywords: CT; Cardiac; Epicardial; Gallium-68 DOTA-TATE; Hereditary; MRI; Mediastinal Mass; PET-CT; Paraganglioma; Succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) subunits; Thymoma.
Copyright Journal of Radiology Case Reports.