Case 095

History/Physical

History/Physical:

23-year-old right-handed female.

Low back pain for two months.

Urinary retention and progressive bilateral leg weakness for one week.

The mass in the central canal posterior to L2 vertebral body is subtle on T2 sequence (*).

The mass fills the thecal sac (*), displacing the cauda equina nerve roots peripherally.

Below the mass, the cauda equina has a normal appearance with paired nerve roots on each side (arrows).

Diagnosis: Myxopapillary ependymoma

Sparsely populated histology with clustered lesional cells among filamentous aggregates and myxoid collections (*).

Tumour cells display some tendency for radial orientation around myxoid aggregates and vessels (forming “papillae”) (arrow).