CASE REPORT   

Il Giornale Italiano di Radiologia Medica 2018 Novembre-Dicembre;5(6):777-82

DOI: 10.23736/S2283-8376.18.00142-0

Copyright © 2018 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: Italian

Myoepithelioma of the parotid gland: a hard-differential diagnosis at imaging. A case in a 68-years-old woman

Antonio L. ANNESE ¹, Michele PIETRAGALLA ², Matteo MASTROROSATO ¹, Giovanni B. VERRONE ¹, Cosimo NARDI ², Cecilia TAVERNA ³, Francesco MUNGAI ¹, Luigi BONASERA ¹ ✉, Vittorio MIELE ¹

¹ Dipartimento di Diagnostica per Immagini, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Careggi, Firenze, Italia; ² Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche, Sperimentali e Cliniche “Mario Serio”, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Firenze, Italia; ³ Divisione di Anatomia Patologica, Dipartimento di Chirurgia e Medicina Traslazionale, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Firenze, Italia

Myoepithelioma is a rare benign neoplasm that represent about 1-1.5% of all the tumors that affect the salivary glands. Most commonly it occurs in the parotid gland (40-50%). The neoplasm takes origin from myoepithelial cells present in the basal lamina that enwrap the glandular acinus. The most common clinical presentation is a slow growing, painless mass, mobile with respect to deep structures, without signs of invasions of surrounding structures or V and VII cranial nerves deficit. Myoepithelioma gets into differential diagnosis with a large number of parotid’s lesions, especially pleomorphic adenoma. Diagnosis is almost impossible at imaging and it is usually reached through histopathological and immunohistochemical examinations. We describe a case of a parotid gland’s myoepithelioma in a 68-years-old woman who came to our Institute to undergo an MRI evaluation of a mass in right parotid region.

KEY WORDS: Myoepithelioma - Head and neck neoplasms - Parotid gland - Magnetic resonance imaging