Intramuscular myxomas appear as well-demarcated, homogeneous and hypodense ovoid lesions. The soft tissue mass attenuation is higher than that of water and less than that of surrounding tissue 1. They usually show mild diffuse enhancement or peripheral and septal enhancement seen in approximately 50% of cases 1. MRI. MRI features include:

Cystic-appearing lesions are commonly seen in clinical practice at imaging of the extremities. However, only some of these lesions are truly cystic lesions (eg, ganglia or synovial cysts, bursae) and may be managed conservatively. Fluid-filled lesions usually have homogeneous high T2 signal at magnetic resonance (MR) imaging.

Ultrasonography to distinguish between cystic and solid masses, locate adjacent blood vessels, and distinguish between other diagnoses, including a ruptured Baker cyst and deep venous...

Soft tissue masses can be located anywhere in the body, and can be distinguished based on their depth into superficial and deep soft tissue masses. A superficial location is more suggestive of a benign entity whereas deeply situated masses should raise suspicion for malignancy 2 .

In this article, a review of current MR imaging techniques will be discussed as they relate to the characterization of “cystic-appearing” masses, with emphasis on supplemental information provided by noncontrast functional (diffusion weighted imaging [DWI]) and metabolic MR techniques (proton MR spectroscopy) for differentiating cysts and ...