Orthopaedic Case of the Month: A 14-Year-Old Boy With a Medial Thigh Soft Tissue Mass

Imaging of childhood angiomatoid fibrous histiocytoma with pathological correlation

“…The US and MR imaging findings of angiomatoid fibrous histiocytoma have only been reported as case reports in the literature, mainly in adults. Four previous pediatric cases have been illustrated in the literature [5,8,12,14], all of them evaluated with MR imaging only and showing features also noted in our series. To the best of our knowledge, US findings have been described only in one case report in a 77-year-old woman with a lesion in the temporal region [13].…”

“…The most notable and helpful MR imaging finding is the presence of cystic spaces with fluid-fluid levels [9], which were noted in three of our patients and in two of the four children previously illustrated in the literature [5,14]. Similar as with US, these represent the blood-filled cystic spaces seen on histopathology.…”

“…Based on the review of the cases reported in the literature [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] and a preliminary review of some of the cases included in this series, the following imaging characteristics of the masses were assessed: …”

“…Patients usually present with a painless, slow-growing, deep subcutaneous mass in the extremities; however, the mass may also arise in other regions of the body including head and neck, trunk, retroperitoneum and lung [3,4]. Although the clinical and histological findings of angiomatoid fibrous histiocytoma have been well-described in large series of patients, especially in adults, there is little information in the literature regarding its imaging findings, particularly in children [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15].…”