Diagnostic criteria for teratoma

Regarding teratoma, first of all, we need to have a certain understanding of the cause of teratoma. Teratoma is a common cell tumor disease, so teratoma patients must pay special attention to it. Moreover, there are many reasons for the occurrence of teratoma. Teratoma patients must actively cure it. So, what are the diagnostic criteria for teratoma? Let's learn about it together.

(1) Lumbar puncture pressure measurement shows varying degrees of increased pressure in the vast majority of patients, and the protein content in the cerebrospinal fluid is generally not high.
(2) Most cranial X-rays show signs of increased intracranial pressure. If teeth, small bone fragments, or calcifications are found, this will be more helpful for qualitative diagnosis.
(3) CT scan. CT scan shows irregular tumors, nodules, obvious lobes and uneven density. Usually there are solid components (high density), cysts (low density) and calcification and ossification. Multicysts are more common. Fat components can be seen in all patients, and intratumoral bleeding is rare. In a few cases, oily fluid can be seen in the ventricles that moves with changes in body position (caused by teratoma rupture into the ventricles). It is difficult to distinguish between teratomas and malignant teratomas on plain CT scans, but the latter has relatively less cystic components, calcification and fat, and more solid parts.
Benign teratomas have often grown for many years and are usually large when discovered. Those in the pineal region almost all have varying degrees of supratentorial ventricular enlargement. After injection, the solid part is significantly enhanced, with extremely uneven density, and the cyst wall may be enhanced in the form of multiple ring-shaped shadows.
(4) The signals of T1 and T2 images in MRI examination are extremely mixed, but the boundaries are clear, nodular or lobed. There is no edema at the border of benign teratoma (T2 image shows clear high signal). If there is peripheral edema, it indicates that the tumor is a malignant component or a malignant teratoma. The tumor wall and solid part are significantly enhanced after injection.
(5) The tumor marker CEA may be slightly or moderately elevated. AFP is significantly elevated in patients with immature teratomas and mixed GCT containing this component.
The diagnostic criteria for teratoma are summarized here. I hope that patients will go to a professional teratoma hospital for a good examination and avoid misdiagnosis, because misdiagnosis will lead to incorrect treatment of teratoma. Finally, I wish all teratoma patients to recover from their disease as soon as possible.