Intracranial gangliogliomas: MRI findings

LUO Xinxin; GENG Zuojun; HAN Xuefang

Abstract：Objective To explore the MRI manifestations of intracranial gangliogliomas and to improve its recognition.Methods 12 patients with pathologically confirmed gangliogliomas were retrospectively analyzed,including 11 patients with pre-and post-contrast MR scan,1 patient with merely post-contrast MR scan.Results All the cases showed single lesion;8 of 12 cases were supratentorial and mainly located in the frontal and temporal lobe;4 of 12 cases were infratentorial and located in the cerebellum,brain stem,and fourth ventricle;10 of 12 cases were solid,2 cases were cystic-solid;The tumors ranged from 2 to 6 cm in diameter.Contours of the tumors were presented round in 5 cases,cerebriform in 4 cases,and irregular in 3 cases;No or mild perilesional edema was seen in the majority of the cases;In 11 cases with MR scan,the solid part of most cases showed low or slightly low signal on T1WI,high or slightly high signal on T2WI,the cystic part of the cases showed low signal on T1WI,high signal on T2WI;In the 12 cases with enhanced scan,no or mild enhancement was appeared in the solid part of most cases,no enhancement was appeared in the cystic part of the two cases.Conclusion The MRI of intracranial gangliogliomas have certain characteristic features,and to some extent,gangliogliomas can be clearly diagnosed before operation.