MRI diagnosis and differential diagnosis of the cerebellopontine angle tumors

Objective To evaluate the MRI value in the differential diagnosis of the cerebellopontine angle (CPA) tumors. Methods 139 CPA tumors proved by both surgery and pathology were retrospectively analyzed. Among them there are 81 acoustic neuromas, 23 trigeminal neuromas, 15 meningiomas, 11 cholesteatomas, 2 hemangioblastomas, 4 arachnoid cysts, 1 papillomas choroideum, 1 medulloblastoma and 1 low grade astrocytoma, respectively. Results Of CPA tumors, 96.4% were extracerebral tumors, 3.6% were intracerebral tumors; Of them 98.6% were benign tumors. The common tumors happened in CPA were acoustic neuroma ( 58.2% ), trigeminal neuroma ( 16.5% ) and meningioma ( 10.8% ). Most of the CPA tumors had characteristic MRI appearances.The accurate rates of location and qualitative diagnosis before operation were 100% and 93.7% respectively. Conclusion MRI is an available tool for detecting the CPA tumors and plays an important role in the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of the CPA tumors.