FLAIR hyperintensity along the brainstem surface in leptomeningeal metastases: a case series and literature review
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
FLAIR hyperintensity along the brainstem surface in leptomeningeal metastases: a case series and literature review Koichi Mitsuya1* , Yoko Nakasu1,2, Shoichi Deguchi1, Kensei Shirata3, Koiku Asakura3, Kazuaki Nakashima3, Masahiro Endo3, Toshiaki Takahashi4 and Nakamasa Hayashi1
Abstract Background: The incidence of leptomeningeal metastasis (LM) is underestimated because of its non-specific signs and the low sensitivity of clinical diagnostic modalities. Cerebrospinal magnetic resonance (MR) imaging with and without contrast enhancement (CE) is a gold standard for the neuroradiological assessment of patients with suspected LM. Previous studies suggested that some LM cases show changes of the brainstem surface on noncontrast MR images without or before the appearance of abnormalities on CE images. We assessed the features of this non-contrast MR finding in a cohort of LM patients in this retrospective single-institution study. Methods: We reviewed head MR images and clinical data of 142 consecutive patients in whom the final diagnosis was LM. Results: We found that 11 of these 142 patients (7.7%) with LM had band-like hyperintensity on the brainstem surface on non-enhanced FLAIR images, which looked like bloomy rind on cheese. Three of seven patients who were examined using diffusion-weighted imaging showed restricted diffusion in the corresponding lesion site. The above-mentioned 11 patients included 10 women and 1 man, with a median age of 61 years. All 11 patients had primary lung adenocarcinoma. Seven patients had symptomatic hydrocephalus. Ten patients had EGFR-mutated and one had ALK-rearrangement adenocarcinomas. Before the diagnosis of LM, 10 patients had undergone systemic therapy with EGFR-TKI or pemetrexed, and 1 patient with ALK inhibitor and bevacizumab. Conclusions: We present a series of patients with bloomy rind sign that is non-enhancing LM reliably detected by FLAIR hyperintensity on the brainstem surface. This finding is rare, but may reflect the spread of cancer cells in both the leptomeningeal membrane and the surface of the brain parenchyma specifically in patients with lung adenocarcinomas. Further study is needed to determine the clinical significance of this sign, and the pathophysiological factors associated with it may be clarified by analyzing serial MR images in a larger cohort of patients treated for LM. Keywords: Brainstem, Diffusion MRI, FLAIR, Leptomeningeal metastasis, Non-small cell lung cancer, Targeted therapy
* Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Division of Neurosurgery, Shizuoka Cancer Center, Nagaizumi, Shizuoka 4118777, Japan Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and i
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