Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Thoracic Hydatid Disease

Abstract

Two patients with thoracic manifestations of hydatid disease (HD) are discussed; one patient had recurrent HD of the chest wall and the other, intrapulmonary HD after rupture and intrathoracic extension of an infradiaphragmatic cyst. At magnetic resonance (MR) imaging the manifestations of HD in the thorax are similar to previously reported MR findings in HD in the liver. The presence of a low signal intensity rim on T2 weighted images representing the cyst wall was confirmed. On T1 weighted images cysts with heterogeneous low and intermediate signal intensity contents and a relatively high signal intensity wall were seen. ‘Folded parasitic membranes’ previously not described on MR were noted. Daughter cysts may have a low or high signal intensity depending on contents. Reactive changes in the lung may be quite marked compared with the liver, due to reaction to the parasite or simply because the lung is more easily compressed leading to secondary atelectasis.