title: A false lesion in the center of the pons on magnetic resonance images.
abstract: Three-hundred pediatric patients were evaluated for pontine signal abnormalities with special reference to small nodular, central pontine lesions. The ages of the patients ranged from 1 year to 17 years (mean = 7.3 years). There were 157 males and 143 females. The magnetic resonance (MR) imaging examinations were performed at 0.5 Tesla. There were 26 cases out of the 300 patients with pontine involvement due to a variety of clinically proved disorders. Except for these, we noted four patients with nodular, central pontine changes in the remaining 274 cases (four out of 274 = approximately 1.5%). These appeared as hyperintense foci on T2-weighted images, and hypointense on T1-weighted images. They were approximately 2-3 mm in diameter, and confined exactly to the middle of the pons. There was no clinical correspondence for these. The condition was attributed to an artefact created by a relatively deep interpedincular cistern leading to a volume-averaging effect.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Ege University Hospital, Bornova, Izmir, Turkey. rsener@hotmail.com
authors.forename: R N
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Sener
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D016477:Artifacts; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D002544:Cerebral Infarction / Q000175:diagnosis; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004660:Encephalitis / Q000175:diagnosis; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D005260:Female; D005910:Glioma / Q000175:diagnosis; D006527:Hepatolenticular Degeneration / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000175:diagnosis; D017590:Myelinolysis, Central Pontine / Q000175:diagnosis; D011149:Pons / Q000473:pathology*