SPINAL ANGIOLIPOMAS - MR FEATURES

PURPOSE: To determine the MR features of spinal angiolipomas and to co mpare these findings with their histologic appearance. METHODS: The MR examinations of three patients with surgically proved angiolipomas we re reviewed for tumor location and extent, signal characteristics, and pattern of contrast enhancement, and were then compared with the hist ologic findings. RESULTS: Four tumors were found in the three patients , all located in the posterior epidural compartment, averaging about 2 .5 vertebral bodies in length. On noncontrast T1-weighted images, all lesions were inhomogeneous and hypointense relative to epidural fat. I nhomogeneous enhancement was seen in three lesions on postcontrast T1- weighted images obtained with fat-saturation techniques. Angiolipomas were least conspicuous on T2-weighted images. A high vascular content correlated with the presence of large hypointense regions on T1-weight ed images. CONCLUSION: Spinal angiolipomas are typically hyperintense on noncontrast T1-weighted images relative to other tumors. Angiolipom as that contain large hypointense foci on noncontrast T1-weighted imag es can be expected to have a high degree of vascularity.