Intramedullary Tumors and Radiological Diagnostics

Abstract

This work is a literature review about the most common intramedullary tumors and radiologic diagnostics. It contains four chapters and 14 subsections.

The aim is to enhance the comprehension on the demographic distribution of the tumors, on the prognoses, on the radiologic imaging techniques used for diagnosing them, and on their typical features on MRI. Furthermore, a case report is to be demonstrated.

It was found that intramedullary astrocytomas as well as hemangioblastomas most frequently are diagnosed in early adulthood, intramedullary ependymomas in early adulthood and middle age of life, and lipomas in childhood. When looking at intramedullary primary tumor patients the prognosis for individuals with astrocytomas is the most severe. Patients with intramedullary metastases have the worst prognosis. The most informative imaging modality is MRI. MRI allows to distinguish the different intramedullary tumor types, however there are limitations in certain situations including the differentiation between ependymomas and astrocytomas. Characteristics of malignancy on MRI are uneven margins of the lesion, infiltration into the surrounding tissue, strong as well as non-uniform enhancement, as well as different signal intensities. On ADC maps diffusion restriction is indicative of malignancy.