title: Imaging findings of intraventricular and ependymal lesions.
abstract: Intraventricular and ependymal lesions comprise a wide spectrum of tumoral, cystic, vascular, infectious and inflammatory disorders. With respect to tumoral and cystic diseases, the location, age and CT and MRI patterns are the main factors for diagnosis. The MRI findings of infectious diseases are supported by the clinical history, immune status and laboratory findings. Intracranial associated lesions may be very helpful for the diagnosis of Sturge-Weber, subependymal giant cell astrocytoma and systemic diseases, such as sarcoidosis and histiocytosis. Intraventricular vascular lesions are rare but present typical features on neuroimaging. The aim of this review is to provide a detailed description of these disorders with an emphasis on the key imaging findings and to generate a narrow differential diagnosis. We present a diagnostic approach based on the solid or cystic aspect of the intraventricular focal mass, its origin from the ventricular wall or choroid plexus and its location within the ventricular system. We also propose a differential diagnosis for ependymal dissemination: the ependymal enhancement may be due to ventriculitis from adjacent parenchymal lesions, the ependymal spread of tumors or infectious or inflammatory/systemic diseases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroradiology, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, AP-HP, 47-83, boulevard de l'Hôpital, 75013 Paris, France.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Vandesteen
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Drier
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Galanaud
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Clarençon
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Leclercq
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Karachi
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dormont
mesh_terms: D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002552:Cerebral Ventricles / Q000473:pathology*; D058565:Cerebral Ventriculitis / Q000175:diagnosis*; D014695:Cerebral Ventriculography / Q000379:methods*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Diagnosis; Disease; Ependyma; Intraventricular; MRI