Tumors of the trachea sometimes hard to diagnose as many patients don't realize they have some pathological reason for their problems so they do not immediately go to the doctor. Sometimes tumors of the trachea prevent people from swallowing or breathing easily as the tumor may be blocking this function. Most tumors of the trachea are malignant, but fortunately these tumors occur very infrequently. Smoking is a risk factor for these tumors. Here is a website with valuable information on these types of tumors:
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/425904-overview
MRI can be used for diagnosis of these tumors. Ultimately a biopsy would need to be performed, but with excellent soft tissue imaging this is sometimes the first step in diagnosis. A basic protocol of T1 and T2 imaging with post contrast T1 imaging is pretty much all one needs to image this area. Usual neck imaging contains axial and coronal imaging, but since this structure is midline, sagital imaging should also be performed. Attached are some images of this:
T1 SAG
T1 COR
T1 AXIAL
T1 SAG POST CONTRAST
T1 AXIAL POST CONTRAST
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