Role of magnetic resonance imaging in the evaluation of intraspinal tumor

Abstract

Background: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a noninvasive diagnostic tool in patient with spinal tumors. MRI has made a significant impact on the differential diagnosis of intraspinal tumor. Objective: To evaluate the validity of MRI as a diagnostic tool in patient with spinal tumors. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Radiology & Imaging Department (RID) of Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Dhaka. Total 50 clinically suspected patients of Intraspinal tumor referred to RID for MRI were included in this study. MRI of cervical, dorsal and lumbar spine were done according to requirement. After operation histopathology report of the mass was collected in each case. This histopathlogical report was taken as gold standard test for identifying the type of the intraspinal mass. The validity indices namely sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive values of MRI report to detect the intraspinal mass were calculated. Results: A total of 50 patients, 30 (60.0%) were male and the rest 20(40.0%) were female with mean age of 38.89 years. Weakness of the limbs was the most common (46, 92%) symptoms of the patients. Another common symptom was back pain (45, 92%) patients. On MRI the commonest location of spinal tumors was intradural extramedullary (29, 58%). The highest number {13 cases (26%)} was identified as Schwannoma, followed by Meningioma {11 cases (22%)}, then Ependymoma {7 cases (14%)}. Most of the tumors show hypointense signal on TIWI (52%) and hyperintense signal on T2WI (62%) and post contrast heterogeneous enhancement (44%). Sensitivity and specificity of MRI to detect intraspinal tumor were 92.68% and 88.0% respectively. Conclusion: MRI can be accepted as the most effective imaging modality in the diagnosis of intraspinal tumor.