Angiolipoma of the chest wall: a case report

BACKGROUND: Angiolipoma is a rare histological variant of lipoma. Angiolipoma commonly occurs in the subcutaneous tissues of the extremity and trunk. There are few reports of angiolipoma occurring in the chest wall. CASE PRESENTATION: A 78-year-old woman was referred to our hospital for evaluation of angina pectoris. Coronary computed tomography (CT) showed a soft tissue nodule in the left chest wall by chance. Enhanced chest CT showed a heterogeneous enhanced nodule in the left chest wall. On magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the lesion showed low signal intensity on T1-weighted images, heterogeneous high signal intensity on T2-weighted images and high signal intensity on fat-suppressed T2-weighted images. The lesion showed heterogeneous enhanced effect on gadolinium-based contrast agent. These radiological findings suggested neurogenic tumor with abundant blood flow or hemangioma. Video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) was performed for both diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. Histopathological examination of the tumor showed mature adipose tissue and capillary hyperplasia containing fibrin thrombi. These appearances were consistent with angiolipoma. She had an uneventful recovery and did not show recurrence until 8 months post-surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Angiolipoma of the chest wall is extremely rare. Preoperative diagnosis is very difficult because the imaging findings of angiolipoma vary depending on the amount of vascular component and fat component, so surgical resection is suggested to be both diagnostic and therapeutic.