[Differential diagnosis of astrocytic tumors]

Primary brain tumors are subdivided into two basic groups: tumors of neuroglial origin (so-called gliomas) and nonglial tumors. The most common glioma is astrocytoma. In this review article, we describe the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant astrocytic tumors (astrocytoma, anaplastic astrocytoma, and glioblastoma) on conventional MR images. Regardless of the degree of histopathologic differentiation or anplasia, all infiltrating gliomas are clinically malignant. Therefore, it is important to diagnose the infiltrative nature of the tumors on MR images. Characteristic MR findings including signal intensity, contrast enhancement, and localization of the astrocytic tumors are discussed.