Imaging appearance of pachymeningeal tuberculosis

The purpose of our study was to examine imaging findings in patients with pachymeningeal tuberculosis. Imaging studies of seven patients with pachymeningeal tuberculosis were retrospectively reviewed. The diagnosis had been established on the basis of histopathology in three patients and response to antitubercular treatment in four patients.

Tuberculosis can lead to localized or diffuse involvement of the pachymeninges. Most of the focal lesions were seen as en plaque, homogeneous, uniformly enhancing, dural-based masses. The lesions appeared hyperdense on plain CT scans, isointense to brain parenchyma on T1-weighted MR images, and isointense to hypointense on T2-weighted MR images. One patient had diffuse sheet-like thickening of the pachymeninges in the right hemicranium, involving both the supratentorial and infratentorial compartments.