Diagnosis value of MRI to cerebellopontine angle tumor: analysis of 96 cases

Objective To improve the preoperative diagnosis accuracy of cerebellopontine angle tumors through analyzing MRI findings. Methods Ninety-six cases with cerebellopontine angle tumors, confirmed by pathology and surgery, were collected and underwent MRI scan plus enhanced MRI. Among the 96 capes, we observed acoustic neurinoma in 55 cases, meningioma in 20 cases, cholesteatoma in 9 cases, trigeminal neuroma in 7 cases,cavernous hemangioma in 3 cases,arachnoid cyst in 2 cases. The MRI characteristics of all cases were analyzed retrospectively. Results The chief type of tumor happened in the cerebellopontine angle zone was acoustic neurinoma,followed in order by meningioma,cholesteatoma,trigeminal neuroma,cavernous hemangioma and arachnoid cyst. The accuracy of preoperative localization and qualitative diagnosis were 100% and 94.7%respectively.Conclusion MRI has a high value in the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of cerebellopontine angle tumors,which can be used as a preferred preoperative examination method in cerebellopontine angle tumors. Key words: Cerebellopontine angle zone; Brain tumor; MRI; Differential diagnosis