No abstract

Different tumor and tumor like conditions can affect the spinal cord and its supporting structures. They account for 15% of craniospinal tumors. They can affect both adults and children and can lead to severe neurological deficits and several morbidities if not diagnosed on time and treated accordingly. MRI is the essential procedure of choice for the workup and plays an integral role in evaluation and improving anatomic delineation and early diagnosis of spinal tumors and also plays an important role in follow up and to monitor response to treatment. Study aimed to evaluate the imaging features of spinal tumors by MRI, to classify spinal tumors according the imaging findings into extradural, intradural extramedullary, intra-medullary Tumors and to correlate imaging findings with Histopathological findings. Material and methods: This was a retrospective analytical study conducted in 60 patients over a period of 3 years (2016 to jan 2019) in Gandhi Hospital with 1.5 Tesla MRI machine Avanto System Siemens Limited. The MRI images were studied and following characteristics were evaluated: Location, shape, extent, component characteristics, signal intensities on different MRI sequences and enhancement patterns of the lesions, the lesions were classified into extradural, intradural extra-medullary, intra-medullary and correlated with histopathology. Results: In my study it was found that spinal tumors are more common in men (60%) and in adults (83%) with maximum tumors occurring in the age group of 41 to 50 yrs. Out of 60 cases studied, 26(43%) were located in intradural extramedullary compartment, 22(37%) were located in intramedullary and (20%) were in extradural compartment. Conclusion: MRI is the modality of choice for evaluation of spinal tumors. It is useful to study associated soft tissue extension, marrow infiltration, epidural, cord and nerve involvement. The different MRI findings are helpful in classifying different tumors and narrow down the diagnosis, Radiologic manifestations of these tumors need to be correlated with age, sex, location and presentation to arrive at a close differential diagnosis.