Carcinomatous meningitis

Carcinomatous meningitis (CM) occurs in approximately 10%-30% of patient with various malignant neoplasms and commonly eludes standard radiographic techniques or spinal fluid examination. Fifteen New Zealand white rabbits were used in this study. Twelve rabbits were injected with 10/sup 6/ VX2 tumor cells into the cisterna magna, while four rabbits received sterile culture medium. Animals were scanned 6-12 days later at 0.5 or 1.5 using a surface coil, 3-5-mm section thickness, and a field of view of 8-12 cm. Spin-echo (SE) (repetion time ms/echo time ms) pulse sequence with SE500-300/20-40 or SE 2,000/80 pulse sequences were used. Animals were scanned before and after intravenous administration of Gd-DTPA, 0.1 mM/kg. Contrast enhancement (CE) was demonstrated as increased signal intensity in the images along the base of the brain and spinal canal in all tumor-bearing rabbits compared with CE absence in control rabbits. These results indicate that Gd-DTPA-enhanced MR imaging can accurately delineate CM in an animal model