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Analysis of petrous apex meningocele associated with meningioma: is there any relation with chronic intracranial hypertension?

  • Diagnostic Neuroradiology
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Abstract

Purpose

Petrous apex meningocele (PAM) is an uncommon cystic lesion involving the petrous apex. The underlying cause of PAM may be related to chronic elevated intracranial pressure. The aim of the study was to explore the relationship between PAM and meningioma and between PAM and other intracranial hypertension findings.

Methods

Two hundred seventy-eight consecutive patients with meningiomas were retrospectively studied. Fifty age- and gender-matched controls were also enrolled in this study. The incidence of PAM, empty sella, tortuosity of the optic nerve, and hydrops of optic nerve sheath was evaluated. The maximum width, area, volume of each PAM, or Meckel’s cave and volume of meningioma were measured in controls and patients, separately.

Results

One hundred fifty-nine (57.19%) patients were detected with coexistent PAMs. One hundred twenty-five patients had bilateral PAMs, 34 had unilateral lesions, and the remaining 119 did not have PAM. Two subjects (4/50) had unilateral PAMs in normal controls. The maximum width, area, volume of PAM, or Meckel’s cave were significantly larger in the patients with bilateral PAM group than those in the unilateral PAM group, in the group without PAM, and those in control group (p = 0.000). The volume of meningioma was positively correlated with the PAM volume (r = 0.48). There was a positive correlation for the incidence between PAM and (1) empty sella (r = 0.901) and (2) tortuosity of the optic nerves and hydrops of the optic sheath (r = 0.825).

Conclusion

Coexistence of PAMs with meningiomas is not rare in incidence, and it suggests a potential role for chronically elevated intracranial pressure and disturbance of CSF circulation in their pathophysiology.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions on the quality improvement of the present study. We also thank all individuals who served as research participants.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Second School of Clinical Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, People’s Republic of China

    Wan-Qun Yang, Biao Huang & Chang-Hong Liang

  2. Department of Radiology, Guangdong General Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, 106 Zhongshan 2nd Road, Guangzhou, 510080, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China

    Wan-Qun Yang, Hong-Jun Liu, Biao Huang & Chang-Hong Liang

  3. Department of Radiology, Nanhai Hospital Affiliated Southern Medical University, Foshan, Guangdong, 528200, People’s Republic of China

    Jie-Ying Feng

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  1. Wan-Qun Yang
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Correspondence to Chang-Hong Liang.

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Funding

This work was partially funded by the National Foundation of Natural Science of China (81471654) and Medical Science and Technology Research Foundation of Guangdong province (A2016136).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Guangdong General Hospital institutional Ethics Committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

For this type of retrospective study formal consent is not required; however, informed consent was obtained from each subject in the control group.

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Yang, WQ., Feng, JY., Liu, HJ. et al. Analysis of petrous apex meningocele associated with meningioma: is there any relation with chronic intracranial hypertension?. Neuroradiology 60, 151–159 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-017-1932-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-017-1932-x

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