MR imaging of cerebral cavernous hemangiomas

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and CT were performed on 16 lesions of 13 patients with cases of cavernous hemangioma (10 cases of a solitary lesion and 1 case of multiple lesions). Six of the 16 cavernomas were histologically confirmed. All the lesions were detected on enhanced CT scans; fifteen of the 16 lesions were detected on MR images. The cavernous hemangiomas showed various signal intensities on both T1-weighted and T2-weighted images. All lesions not associated with a fresh hematoma were circumscribed by a curvilinear low-intensity area, most prominently on T2-weighted images. This low-intensity band around cavernous hemangiomas on T2-weighted images seemed to represent the hemosiderin leiden peritumoral brain. (author)