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Intermuscular lipoma of the neck

Case contributed by Ahmed Abdrabou
Diagnosis almost certain

Presentation

Painless swelling at the left side of the neck

Patient Data

Age: 70 years old
Gender: Female

A well defined encapsulated fat rich mass lesion seen in between the left trapezius and posterior scalene muscles. It displays bright signal on T1 and T2 and becomes suppressed on STIR.

Case Discussion

Diagnosis of fat containing lesions requires assessment by T1 and T2 showing bright signal of the lesion as well as fat suppressed sequence, e.g. STIR or CHESS, showing a very low signal. As STIR and CHESS sequences do not achieve adequate suppression in lesions containing microscopic fat, these lesions require a T1 out-of-phase sequence.

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