Aim: In this study, we aimed to reveal the diagnostic profiles of 0-18 years aged patients, for whom cranial magnetic resonance imaging is requested in outpatient settings, and to evaluate the cranial imaging results according to gender and age groups.
Materials and Methods: The files of patients aged 0-18 years who were requested cranial magnetic resonance imaging for various indications, between August 2019 and March 2021, in Balikesir University, Faculty of Medicine pediatric neurology and pediatric health and diseases outpatient clinics were reviewed retrospectively.
Age, gender, main complaint and neuroradiological imaging results were obtained from hospital records. Data were divided for three different age groups (0-6, 7-12, 13-18).
Results: Cranial magnetic resonance imaging of 313 cases were analyzed. The mean age of the patients was 9.35±4.89 (4 months-17 years) years. There were 164 (52.4%) boys and 149 (47.6%) girls. There were 82 (26.2%) cases in the 0-6 years age group, 104 (33.2%) in the 7-12 years age group and 127 (40.6%) in the 13-18 years age group. The most common reasons for requesting cranial magnetic resonance imaging were as; seizure/epilepsy in 106 (33.9%) cases, headache in 65 (20.8%) cases, and neuromotor retardation in 28 (8.9%) cases. While the cranial imaging of 200 (63.9%) cases was normal, the results of 113 (36.1%) cases were evaluated as abnormal. The most common abnormal findings were intracranial mass (2.5%), nonspecific white matter lesion (5.1%), intracranial cyst (5.7%), sinusitis (9.2%) and hydrocephalus/hydrancephaly (2.6%). When age groups were compared in terms of showing normal or abnormal cranial imaging findings, no statistically significant difference was found (p=0.73), but a statistically significant difference was found between the genders in the same respect (p=0.007).
Conclusion: Our study is important for including cranial MRI request indications and results in pediatric practice and it creating a diagnostic profile in these patients.
