What are the ultrasound manifestations of ovarian teratoma?

Nowadays, people's technology is very advanced, especially in medicine. There are many instruments used to examine the human body, and they are all relatively advanced. Ultrasound examination is a very commonly used examination method. Ovarian teratoma is a disease that women are more likely to suffer from. It needs to be diagnosed through ultrasound examination. So what are the ultrasound manifestations of ovarian teratoma? Let’s introduce them below.

MR manifestations include:

1. The signal intensity of the liquid fat part of the tumor shows short T1 and long T2 signals, which is the main basis for diagnosing teratoma.

2. There are mainly two structures inside the tumor: debris and wall processes. The components of the wall processes are lipid tissue, hair, teeth and bones. Debris is often located in the lower layer of the cystic part, and liquid fat is located in the upper layer, producing a stratified signal. The signal intensity of debris and wall projections is generally medium signal. Lipids have a very high signal on T2-weighted images, hair has a lower signal than muscle tissue, and bones and teeth have no signal.

3. Chemical shift artifacts caused by fat can appear both inside the tumor and around the tumor. This feature can be distinguished from hemorrhagic lesions.

CT findings include:

1. The typical CT sign is a cystic mass with uneven density, which may be unilateral or bilateral.

2. The thickness of the cyst wall is uneven and the edge is smooth.

3. It contains fat density shadows and underdeveloped bones and teeth, and solid nodular shadows protruding from the cyst wall can also be seen. If the cyst contains both fat and liquid, a liquid-fat interface with fat above and liquid below can be seen, and its position may change with changes in body position.

4. If it is a dermoid cyst, CT will only show a cystic space containing fluid, but the cyst wall may have eggshell-like calcification.

5. When a malignant teratoma invades adjacent tissues, the fat layer between the tumor and surrounding organs disappears. When a tumor invades the bladder, pelvic muscles, or intestinal tract, the boundary between them becomes unclear.

Ultrasound findings include:

1. Most mature teratomas have clear boundaries, complete capsules and smooth contours.

2. The oily substance in the tumor appears as homogeneous, dense and tiny light spots, partially or completely covering the cystic cavity.

3. When fat, mucosa and serous fluid are in the same cystic cavity, a level of echo enhancement can be seen, which is called the liquid-fat surface.

4. When there is hair, a spherical or hemispherical light mass can be seen, accompanied by sound shadow or sound attenuation. The hairy luminous masses in the liquid have a floating feel.

5. Bones, teeth and cartilages have strong echoes in the form of strips, accompanied by acoustic shadows or acoustic attenuation.

6. The substantial part presents an inhomogeneous solid mass with diffusely distributed moderate or strong echoes.