Hepatic mesenchymal sarcoma: MRI findings

Hepatic undifferentiated mesenchymal sarcoma is a rare pediatric malignant neoplasm. We present three children, aged 7, 8, and 12 years, with this tumor. Clinical presentation was abdominal pain, palpable mass, asthenia, anorexia, and weight loss. One had jaundice. All three lesions were detected on ultrasound (US), computed tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). MRI localized the lesions more accurately than the other methods, with good resectability correlation. On MRI, these tumors were markedly hyperintense on long TR/TE spin-echo (SE) and short-time inversion recovery (STIR) sequences. This was due to the cystic areas with myxoid material and necrosis. The internal septations were hypointense on these sequences. On short TR/TE SE sequences the lesions presented a fibrous pseudocapsule (two cases), and internal hyperintense areas representing hemorrhage (two cases). MRI also detected vascular invasion (one case), biliary obstruction (one case), and biliar adenopathies (one case). The combination of hemorrhage (hyperintense on short TR/TE SE) and cystic or myxoid components (markedly hyperintense on long TR/TE SE and STIR sequences) is common in this tumor.