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Imaging of cerebellopontine angle lesions: an update. Part 1: enhancing extra-axial lesions

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Abstract

Computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging reliably demonstrate typical features of vestibular schwannomas or meningiomas in the vast majority of mass lesions in the cerebellopontine angle (CPA). However, a large variety of unusual lesions can also be encountered in the CPA. Covering the entire spectrum of lesions potentially found in the CPA, these articles explain the pertinent neuroimaging features that radiologists need to know to make clinically relevant diagnoses in these cases, including data from diffusion and perfusion-weighted imaging or MR spectroscopy, when available. A diagnostic algorithm based on the lesion’s site of origin, shape and margins, density, signal intensity and contrast material uptake is also proposed. Part 1 describes the different enhancing extra-axial CPA masses primarily arising from the cerebellopontine cistern and its contents, including vestibular and non-vestibular schwannomas, meningioma, metastasis, aneurysm, tuberculosis and other miscellaneous meningeal lesions.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to David Seidenwurm, MD, for his meticulous and exhaustive review of this manuscript

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neuroradiology, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, 47, Boulevard de l’Hôpital, 75013, Paris, France

    Fabrice Bonneville & Jacques Chiras

  2. Department of Radiology, Adolphe de Rothschild Fondation, Paris, France

    Julien Savatovsky

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  1. Fabrice Bonneville
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  2. Julien Savatovsky
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  3. Jacques Chiras
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Correspondence to Fabrice Bonneville.

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Bonneville, F., Savatovsky, J. & Chiras, J. Imaging of cerebellopontine angle lesions: an update. Part 1: enhancing extra-axial lesions. Eur Radiol 17, 2472–2482 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-007-0679-x

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