Objective: A modern imaging review is necessary to further define the anatomic origin of the juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma.
Methods: After institutional review board approval, a search from January 1998 to January 2013 yielded 33 male patients (aged 10–23 years) with pathologically proven juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma lesions, as well as pretreatment computed tomography/magnetic resonance imaging. Juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma involvement was assessed in the following regions: sphenopalatine foramen, pterygopalatine fossa, vidian canal, nasopharynx, nasal cavity, sphenoid sinus, choana, pterygomaxillary fissure/masticator space, orbit, and sphenoid bone.
Results: The choana and nasopharynx were involved in all 33 patients. In contrast, only 22 lesions involved the pterygopalatine fossa, 24 lesions involved the sphenopalatine foramen, and 28 lesions involved the vidian canal.
Conclusions: Our results suggest that the juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma origin is in the region of the choana and nasopharynx rather than the sphenopalatine foramen or pterygopalatine fossa.
From the *Department of Radiology and †Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; and ‡Department of Radiology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI.
Received for publication June 9, 2016; accepted September 29, 2016.
Correspondence to: Colin D. McKnight, MD, Department of Radiology, University of Michigan, 1500 E Medical Center Dr, UH B2-A209, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (e-mail: colin.mcknight1@gmail.com).
Presented at the 2015 ASNR meeting in Chicago as a scientific presentation.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Authors' contribution: C.M. and H.P., project development, data collection, and manuscript writing; K.W., project development; S.M., project development and manuscript writing.
