Magnetic resonance imaging of intracranial epidermoid tumours

Epidermoid tumours are rare lesions within the skull which are usually found in a cerebellopontine angle. In the computed tomography (CT) literature, they have been described as well-defined lesions of low density which seldom show calcification or tissue enhancement. We have recently encountered three intracranial epidermoids, which appeared to exhibit uniform findings on low field strength magnetic resonance (MR) of moderate signal intensity in the T1-weighted images and a bright signal (increased T2) in the T2-weighted sequences. It may be possible to predict accurately the presence of an epidermoid tumour when this particular configuration of findings is present.