Pseudo-Meigs Syndrome Due to Subserosal Leiomyoma Diagnosed by MR Imaging: Case Report

cologic origin is sometimes similar to that of disseminated malignant neoplasms (1). This is usually the case in patients with Meigs or pseudo-Meigs syndrome. Meigs syndrome was defined in 1954 as a fibroma or fibromalike tumor associated with hydrothorax and ascites, which resolved on removal of the tumor. Pseudo-Meigs syndrome has an identical clinical constellation but the tumor types which occur were not initially described by Meigs (1-3). Among such cases, uterine leiomyomas with associated ascites and hydrothorax are particularly rare and although serum levels of carcinogenic antigen (CA)-125 are as elevated in these patients as in malignant disease, reports have stated that the effusions disappeared spontaneously after removal of the leiomyoma, and the patient was cured (3-5). We report a case of pseudo-Meigs syndrome due to a large subserosal leiomyoma in a patient with a high serum CA-125 level. Clinical examination at first suggested disseminated malignant disease, but MR imaging showed that the mass had the typical appearance of uterine leiomyoma, with ascites and pleural effusion but no evidence of malignancy.