Pediatric brain stem gliomas: Comparison of evaluation by CT and MR imaging

This study is a direct comparison of the role of CT and MR imaging in the pretreatment and posttreatment evaluation of pediatric brain-stem gliomas. Thirty-four patients with presumed brain-stem gliomas were imaged by both CT and MR over the past 53 months. Twenty-two males and 12 females ranged in age from 3 to 17 years. Fifteen patients had tumor confirmed by biopsy. Thirteen children with nonneoplastic brain-stem lesions were imaged. MR proved superior to CT in both the pretreatment and posttreatment evaluation of patients with brain-stem gliomas. Pathologic correlation to the images is made in selected cases