Intracranial meningiomas: comparison of plain and contrast-enhanced examinations in CT and MRI

Fifty patients with intracranial meningiomas underwent plain and contrast-enhanced examinations with CT and MRI. Each of the MR studies consisted of three plain (T1, proton density and T2-weighted) and a post-contrast series (0.1 mmol Gd-DTPA/kg body weight). All techniques (plain CT, plain MRI, contrast-enhanced CT, contrast-enhanced MRI) proved to be highly efficient as regards tumour detection: depending on the technique, an intracranial lesion was demonstrated in 47-50 cases. The image contrast was assessed as good or excellent in 21 cases having plain CT and in 33 cases having plain MRI, but in 46 and 50 of the contrast-enhanced CT and MRI studies respectively. Adequate tumour delineation was achieved in 18 cases with plain CT, in 35 cases with plain MRI and in 46 and 50 cases of the contrast-enhanced CT and MRI examinations. The contrast-enhanced studies proved to be superior to the plain CT and MRI studies as regards image contrast and tumor delineation. Because of the methodological advantages of the MRI technique, contrast-enhanced MRI was judged to be slightly superior to contrast-enhanced CT.