Differential Diagnosis of Spinal Schwannoma and Meningioma with MRI

MRI is very useful in the diagnosis of spinal cord tumors. It has been proposed that in most cases, differentiation of the spinal schwannoma and meningioma can be differentiated by MRI, but contradictory opinions have also been reported. Generally schwannomas show low or iso intensity signals on T1-weighted images, high intensity signals on T2-weighted images compared with that of the spinal cord, and are heterogeneous inside the tumor. On the other hand, meningiomas show iso intensity signals on both Ti-weighted images and T2-weighted images, and are homogeneous inside the tumor. In retrospec, 21 cases with schwannoma and 10 cases with meningioma operated on from 1988 to 1998 were reviewed by an orthopedician who had not attended there surgeries in order to confirm if the differential diagnosis of these two tumors could be performed by MRI. The accordant rate between MRI diagnosis and histological diagnosis was 100% in Schwannomas and 80% in Meningiomas respectively, this confirming that the differential diagnosis of spinal schwannoma and meningioma can be performed by MRI.