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Imaging of intracranial fat: from normal findings to pathology

  • Neuroradiology
  • Published:
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Abstract

The presence of intracranial adipose tissue is often overlooked, although it may be detected in different physiological (dural sinuses or falx deposition of fat) and pathological (lipoma, dermoid cyst, subarachnoid fat dissemination) conditions. In this review, we illustrate various scenarios in which radiologists and neuroradiologists may encounter intracranial fat, providing a list of differential diagnosis.

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Abbreviations

ADC:

Apparent diffusion coefficient

CFE:

Cerebral fat embolism

CNS:

Central nervous system

CPA:

Cerebellopontine angle

CSF:

Cerebrospinal fluid

CT:

Computed tomography

DWI:

Diffusion weighted imaging

FLAIR:

Fluid attenuated inversion recovery

HU:

Hounsfield units

IDC:

Intracranial dermoid cyst

MRI:

Magnetic resonance imaging

STIR:

Short tau inversion recovery

WI:

Weighted images

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Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Neuroradiology, E.O. Ospedali Galliera, Mura delle Cappuccine 14, 16128, Genoa, Italy

    Nicola Romano & Antonio Castaldi

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  1. Nicola Romano
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  2. Antonio Castaldi
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Correspondence to Nicola Romano.

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The authors have no personal, financial, or institutional interest regarding the authorship and/or publication of this manuscript.

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All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008. Anonymity is maintained, and the patients are not identifiable in the photographs, images or text.

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Patients are not identifiable by text or images. Informed consent was obtained from all subjects (patients) in this study.

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Romano, N., Castaldi, A. Imaging of intracranial fat: from normal findings to pathology. Radiol med 126, 971–978 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11547-021-01365-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11547-021-01365-5

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