Ganglioneuroma of posterior mediastinum in a 6-year-old girl: imaging for pediatric intrathoracic incidentaloma.

Intrathoracic tumor is a rare entity in the pediatric population and neurogenic tumors account for 40-50% of childhood intrathoracic tumors. They can cause severe symptoms, such as respiratory distress, neurological dysfunction and metabolic disturbances. Posterior mediastinal ganglioneuroma (GN) usually occurs in children and can be found accidentally. Precise preoperative diagnosis is very difficult and has a great influence on surgical intervention. Here, we report a 6-year-old girl with a posterior mediastinal GN that was found incidentally on chest radiography. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated a right paraspinal tumor with punctuate calcification and intraspinal extension. (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography revealed low-grade fluorodeoxyglucose avidity of this tumor. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging can characterize GN and positron emission tomography is helpful for differentiating benign or malignant lesions.