MR MANIFESTATIONS OF SUBEPENDYMOMAS

PURPOSE: To provide a description of the MR and enhanced MR appearance s of subependymomas. METHODS: We reviewed the MR examinations of eight cases of pathologically proved subependymomas and correlated them wit h operative and pathologic reports, and also reviewed the previous pub lished cases of subependymomas documented by MR. Gadopentetate dimeglu mine-enhanced MR examination was performed in seven cases. RESULTS: On e patient presented with four subependymomas, two patients had subepen dymomas of the cervical spine, and the others were intraventricular wi th no transependymal extension. They were isointense to hypointense re lative to normal white matter on T1-weighted images, heterogeneous in five cases. Minimal (n = 1) or no (n = 3) enhancement was noted in fou r cases, and moderate or marked enhancement was noted in three cases. CONCLUSION: We conclude that even though there is no specific sign of subependymomas, when confronted with a complete intraventricular lesio n or with a spinal lesion causing little or no edema which is minimall y enhancing or nonenhancing, one must consider the diagnosis of subepe ndymoma.