Radiological imaging detection of tumors localized in fossa cranii posterior

Intracranial tumors are characterized by a variety imaging aspects and their detection is always a challenge. Clinical application of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Computerized Tomography has provided an earlier detection and treatment of many CNS pathologies. The aim of this study is to estimate the role of CT and MRI in the determination of posterior fossa tumors.

During period 2000-2005 in UCCK-Prishtina, 368 patients were diagnosed with intracranial tumors. Fifty-nine of them were found to have tumor localized in fossa crani posterior (FCP) without any significant difference between genders (50.8% female vs. 49.2% male, chi2 test=0.02 p=0.896). The average age of patients with FCP tumors was 33.1 (SD +/- 22.5, rank 1-70). The most of these patients were registered in 2003 (20.3%) whereas the least in 2000 (11.9%). The most affected age-group was 0-9 (25.4%) and 50-59 (23.7%) whereas the incidences was between 30-39 years of age (3.4%). Tumor types that more often were found in young's individuals were: Astrocytomas with a peak incidence in teenagers (average age was 12-year-old SD +/- 7.5, rank 3-23), next was Medulloblastomas (average age was 11-years-old, SD +/- 2.9, rank 6-16 years) and ependymomas (average age was 6.8-years-old, SD +/- 4.6, rank 1-12). Patients with osseous tumors are characterized by older age than median (61.0, SD +/- 4.2, rank 58-64), then metastases (53.0, SD +/- 5.3, rank 45-60) and meningiomas (50.8, SD +/- 7.7, rank 38-63). The overall average mortality was 0.41 cases per 100,000 inhabitants with variations through years from 0.30-0.50/100,000 inhabitants.

Comparing with other countries, for some types of FCP tumors, lower morbidity is shown in Kosova, with mean incidence 0.41/100,000. The most frequent tumors in children were medulloblastomas, brainstem gliomas, astrocytomas and ependymomas whereas meningiomas and metastasis were most often found in adults. For FCP tumors detection, MRI had 100% sensitivity, specificity and predictive positive value, whereas brain CT was characterized by 95% sensitivity, 90.4 % specificity and 91% predictive positive value.