MR imaging findings in primary spinal cord glioblastoma

• Main Authors: Paolo Ferrante, MD, Juan Andres Mora, MD, Lourdes Salazar, MD, Elena Martínez Sáez, MD, Cristina Auger, MD, Àlex Rovira, MD
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2021-01-01
• Series: Radiology Case Reports
• Subjects: Spinal cord glioblastoma; Primary spinal cord tumors; Glial tumors; MRI
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1930043320305586

Spinal cord glioblastoma is a rare disease, with an aggressive course and a poor prognosis. We describe magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings, in 3 adult cases of biopsy-confirmed glioblastoma.Conventional MRI findings were unclear with regard to the differential diagnosis between this rare tumor and other more common spinal cord lesions, including less aggressive tumors such as ependymoma or pilocytic astrocytoma, abscesses or tumefactive demyelinating lesions. After reasonable exclusion of infectious/inflammatory conditions, a final diagnosis of glioblastoma was established based on histopathological analysis. The cases reported reflect the difficulty of early radiological diagnosis of spinal cord glioblastoma, and indicate the need to perform a biopsy once inflammatory-infectious conditions are excluded with appropriate laboratory tests.