Incidental littoral cell angioma of the spleen.

Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. mctee@interchange.ubc.ca

BACKGROUND: Littoral cell angioma (LCA) is a recently described primary vascular neoplasm of the spleen that may be associated with other malignancies and may itself also have malignant potential. CASE PRESENTATION: We present a case of LCA that was discovered incidentally in a 52-year-old woman who presented with biliary colic at the time of consultation for cholecystectomy. This vascular neoplasm was evaluated by ultrasound, CT, MRI, Tc-99m labelled red blood cell scintigraphy, and core biopsy. A splenectomy revealed LCA by pathological evaluation. Post-operative outcome was favourable with no evidence of complication or recurrent disease. Following this case presentation, clinical, radiographic, and pathological features of LCA will be reviewed as well as recent advances in our understanding of this uncommon splenic lesion. CONCLUSION: LCA is a rare, generally benign, primary vascular tumour of the spleen that typically is discovered incidentally. Individuals diagnosed with this tumour must be carefully evaluated to exclude primary, secondary, and synchronous malignancies.

PMID: 18713469 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

PMCID: PMC2527567