Malignant Gastric Paraganglioma with Liver Metastasis: Imaging Findings and Literature Review

Abstract

Paraganglioma is a neuroendocrine tumor that grows in organs other than the adrenal gland and typically originates in the chromaffin cells, which are distributed along the regions of the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches of the nervous system in the entire body. Abdominal paraganglioma mainly arises in the retroperitoneum, which lines the sympathetic nerve branches; it rarely arises in other anatomical structures. In only a few cases reported in the literature, paraganglioma originated from the stomach. According to the current and previous case reports, gastric paraganglioma seems to be a hypervascular tumor growing around the stomach; it can be easily contrast-enhanced and may be accompanied by distant metastases.

Keywords

• paraganglioma
• extra-adrenal
• stomach
• multidetector computed tomography
• magnetic resonance imaging