Hemorrhagic gastric glomus tumor mimicks a leiomyosarcoma on both transabdominal and endoscopic ultrasonography: case report

Abstract

Glomus tumor is a benign tumor that arises from the modified smooth muscle cells of the glomus body and usually occurs in the skin, particularly in the nail-beds and fingertips. Gastric glomus tumor is a rare gastric submucosal tumor. Endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) is useful in differentiating the gastric submucosal tumors, such as leiomyoma, leiomyosarcoma, lipoma, ectopic pancreas and glomus tumor. On sonography, gastric glomus tumor appears as a homogeneous hypoechoic or a heterogeneous low echoic pattern mixed with internal high echoic spots. Here, we describe an unusual sonographic figure of a hemorrhagic gastric glomus tumor on both EUS and high-resolution transabdominal ultrasonography (TAU). This tumor was located in the gastric muscular layer. Sonographic examination revealed a heterogeneous echogenicity with hyper- and anechoic areas, which mimicked the echoic pattern of gastric leiomyosarcoma.