Year: 2017
Type: conference-abstract
Abstract: Object: Pilocytic astrocytomas (PAs) are relatively rare in adults compared to children and have atypical radiological feature with various predilection sites such as suprasellar area, hypothalamus and brain stem. Despite the development of brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques to acquire the advanced images, preoperative MRIs have often misinterpreted the PAs to be different tumors. The aim of this study was to reveal characteristic feature of adult PAs on radiologic studies that can discriminate them from other tumors. By reviewing adult patients with pathologically confirmed PAs, we analyzed the preoperative radiological diagnosis of PAs to reveal the characteristic findings that Methods: A total of 59 adult patients with newly diagnosed PAs were retrospectively reviewed. 31 patients (52.5%) were male, and the median patient age was 29 years (range, 18 - 79 years). All patient underwent surgeries either biopsy or resection of the tumor. There were 37 supratentorial tumors (62.7%), and 22 infratentorial tumors (37.3%). We analysed the frequency of the cases which were radiologically misinterpreted to be other type of tumors and compared those cases with the most frequently diagnosed tumors to reveal the characteristic radiologic feature of the PAs. Results: Among 59 patients, 13 patients (22%) were diagnosed with PAs on the preoperative MRIs. The most frequent preoperative radiological diagnosis for the infratentorial lesion was hemangioblastoma (8/59, 13.6%) followed by ependymoma (4/59, 6.8%). For the supratentorial lesion, low grade glioma (16.9%) was the most frequently diagnosed followed by ganglioglioma (4/59, 6.8%) and central neurocytoma (4/59, 6.8%). Comparing the PA cases with the counterpart groups such as hemagioblastoma and ganglioglioma, peritumoral edema was almost not present in PAs and enhancing portion of the lesion was larger comparing to the cyst diameter. The frequency of hydrocephalus was less common in infratentorial PA group than cerebellar hemagioblastoma. Conclusions: The adult PAs showed various radiological features and were often misdiagnosed to be other tumors on MRIs. Some radiologic characteristics seem to be specific for the diagnosis of the PAs.
Source: Neuro-Oncology
Authors: H. Lee, J. Kim
Institutions: Myongji Hospital, Asan Medical Center
Language: English
Subfield: Genetics (clinical)
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2610108455