Imaging Findings of Various Calvarial Bone Lesions with a Focus on Osteolytic Lesions

Abstract

In this review, we present computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings of various calvarial lesions on the basis of their imaging patterns and list the differential diagnoses of the lesions. We retrospectively reviewed 256 cases of calvarial lesion (122 malignant neoplasms, 115 benign neoplasms, and 19 non-neoplastic lesions) seen in our institutions, and classified them into six categories based on the following imaging features: generalized skull thickening, focal skull thickening, generalized skull thinning, focal skull thinning, single lytic lesion, and multiple lytic lesions. Although bony lesions of the calvarium are easily identified on CT, bone marrow lesions are better visualized on MRI including diffusion-weighted imaging or fat-suppressed T2-weighted imaging. Careful interpretation of calvarial lesions based on pattern recognition can effectively narrow a range of possible diagnoses.

Keywords

• skull
• neoplasms
• magnetic resonance imaging
• tomography
• x-ray computed
• diagnosis
• differential
• retrospective studies
• bone disease
• bone marrow disease