Clinical characteristics of hepatic angiomyolipoma and its diagnosis and treatment

Objective To summarize the clinical,imaging and pathological characteristics of hepatic angiomyolipoma(HAML) and study its diagnosis and treatment methods. Methods Clinical data about 20 hepatic HAML patients(14 females and 4 males) admitted to our hospital from April 2006 to April 2010 were retrospectively analyzed. Results Most of the patients were asymptomatic.The average diameter of the tumor was 5.25cm.Ultrasonography showed heterogeneous light beams with a high echo in most of the patients.CT and MRI demonstrated significantly enhanced lesions in arterial phase and differently enhanced lesions in portal venous and delayed phase.Pathological examination revealed that the lesions were composed of adipose tissue,smooth muscle and blood vessels.Immunohistochemistry displayed that HMB45 and SMA were positively expressed while CK and AFP were negatively expressed in most of the patients.All the patients were followed up after resection of their tumor,during which no relapse occurred. Conclusion It is difficult to establish the diagnosis of HAML because of its various imaging manifestations,and its final diagnosis depends on pathological and immunohistochemical analysis.Surgical resection is the first choice of its treatment.