The clinical and radiological features of cisternal and pericallosal lipomas

To demonstrate the clinical and radiological features of pericallosal and cisternal lipomas and to compare these two groups in terms of radiological and clinical features.

This retrospective study included 23 patients diagnosed with pericallosal and cisternal lipoma between 2010 and 2017. The patients comprised 12 females and 11 males with a mean age of 38.8 years (range 12-69 years). Magnetic resonance imaging was applied to all the patients. Computed tomography (CT) was also performed in 10 patients.

9 lesions were pericallosal and 14 were cisternal (7 were right quadrigeminal cistern, 3 were left quadrigeminal cistern, 1 was interpeduncular cistern, 1 was left cerebellopontine cistern, 1 was right cerebellopontine cistern, and 1 was supracerebellar cistern). The mean size of the lesions was 18.7 ± 10 mm. The shape of the lesions was curvilinear in 10 patients (43.5%) and tubulonodular in 13 patients (56.5%). The mean CT density of the lesions was - 87.7 ± 25.6 HU. The size of pericallosal lipomas (mean 27.5 mm) was statistically significantly larger than that of cisternal lipomas (mean 13.1 mm) (p = 0.001). No statistically significant difference was determined between the two groups in terms of lesion shape (p = 0.478), gender (p = 0.707), age (p = 0.639), and symptoms (p = 0.084).

In this study, the incidence of pericallosal lipomas was 0.011% and the incidence of cisternal lipomas was 0.017%. Although rare, the knowledge of the clinical and radiological features of pericallosal and cisternal lipomas will play an important role in the accurate diagnosis and follow-up of the patient.