Diagnosis of epithelioid hemangioendothelioma of the liver. Lecture and analysis of own cases

Epithelioid hemangioendothelioma of the liver (EHEL) is a rare (1 case per 1 000,000 people) primary malignant neoplasm from the group of mesenchymal tumors. EHEL is the most aggressive representative of the hemangioendothelioma range with metastatic response and relapse rate, and therein is close to angiosarcoma. The purpose of this publication is to summarize our own experience in comparison with published data and to describe a disease symptom that was not investigated before. Materials and methods. We studied five cases of epithelioid hemangioendothelioma of the liver, confirmed by histological examination. All patients underwent standard computer tomography with bolus contrast agent. Results. The analysis of the images revealed typical for this pathology symptoms such as local retraction of the liver contour, a specific contrast pattern – “the lollipop sign”. We have revealed a new symptom: “the beading sign”, which was detected in four of five cases. In three of five cases, this symptom allowed us to determine the nature of the disease before histological examination. Conclusion. EHEL is a difficult disease to diagnose due to its rare frequency and similarity to other focal liver lesions. In aspect of radiology, it is advisable to focus on specific symptoms of this pathology: retraction of the contour, “lollipop-sign” and “beading-sign”.