Clinical Impact of Thoracic Scanographic Characteristics of Hematologic Malignancy Patients

The mediastinum can be the site of benign or malignant tumors, including 10 to 20% of hematological malignancies.

Mediastinal mass syndrome (MMS) includes symptoms due to irritation, invasion or compression of the organs of the mediastinum. This syndrome includes respiratory manifestations that may be secondary to compression of the tracheobronchial tree, venous vascular manifestations with the superior vena cava syndrome or arterial manifestations, cardiac manifestations, digestive or nervous manifestations.

The management of a mediastinal syndrome is a diagnostic and therapeutic emergency requiring the collaboration of several disciplines in order to achieve the most effective but least deleterious way possible to diagnostic imaging, etiological biopsy, and the possible implementation of life-saving symptomatic measures before the initiation of etiological treatment.

Diagnostic thoracic imaging relies primarily on thoracic computed tomography (CT) to determine the size and nature of the mediastinal mass, the presence and extent of tracheobronchial or great vessel compression, the presence of pleural and/or pericardial effusion, pulmonary embolism, parenchymal lesions, and possibly subdiaphragmatic lesions.

However, the potential severity of MMS is often under-diagnosed in adult patients, particularly in the context of hematologic malignancy. Indeed, we have very little literature on the initial management of these patients at risk.

The present study propose to conduct the first multicenter study to analyze the characteristics (clinical, scanographic, echocardiographic, hematological and resuscitation) of the initial management of patients with symptomatic MMS at diagnosis or at relapse of a patient with MH admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).