Computerized tomography of malignant pleural mesothelioma with spinal canal invasion.

A case malignant pleural mesothelioma is presented. The initial CT scan of the chest showed a left paraspinal pleural mass at T6-T7 level. Subsequently the mass was partially resected by a left thoracotomy. The patient later developed spinal cord findings, and a followup CT scan showed partial destruction of the twelfth dorsal vertebra and intraspinal tumor at T11-T12 level. This is only the second case reporting spinal cord compression by mesothelioma and the first documented by computed tomography.