Transcranial sonography in the evaluation of pineal lesions: two-year follow up study

We have recently reported that transcranial sonography (TCS) is a method competitive to magnetic resonance neuroimaging (MRI) in the evaluation of pineal gland lesions. The aim of the present is study was to assess the usefulness of TCS in a larger patient sample during a two-year follow up. Twenty patients with incidental pineal gland cyst (PGC) detected by MRI scan of the brain and 40 healthy controls without any previous documented data on a disease related to pineal gland were evaluated by TCS and compared with MRI scans. There were no statistically significant differences in PGC size measured by TCS by two observers (p = 0.475), PGC size measured by TCS and MRI (first observer, p = 0.453; and second observer, p = 0.425), size of the pineal gland measured by TCS and MRI in control group (first observer, p = 0.497; and second observer, p = 0.370), and pineal gland size measured by TCS by two observers in control group (p = 0.473). Study results suggested TCS to be a suitable method in the evaluation of pineal gland lesions. Although its resolution cannot match the MRI resolution, its repeatability and accuracy might add to its practical value. We suggest that the repeat MRI scan of such lesions might be replaced by clinical and TCS follow up.