Diffusion Tensor Imaging May Be Useful to Differentiate between Intracranial Dural Metastases & Meningiomas

Xiang Liu¹, Wei Tian², Sven Ekholm²

Although it is important, it is difficult to preoperatively differentiate between intracranial dural based metastases and meningiomas, on conventional MR images. We retrospectively analyzed diffusion tensor imaging in 21 patients with meningiomas and 18 cases of dural metastases. The FA and maximal FA values of meningiomas were significantly higher than for intracranial dural based metastases; but there was no significant difference in mean ADC and minimal ADC values. The maximal FA showed better sensitivity and specificity in these two groups. Therefore, mean and maximal FA may be adjuvant imaging parameters to differentiate between intracranial meningiomas and dural based metastases.