Intracranial meningioma with abnormal localization of bone-seeking radiopharmaceutical: correlation with gross and microscopic pathology

Eur J Nucl Med. 1985;11(1):43-5. doi: 10.1007/BF00440960.

Abstract

Meningioma is one of the neoplasms in which there may be extraosseous localization of bone-seeking radiopharmaceuticals. Tumor calcification, calvarial erosion, and the formation of reactive bone have been proposed as the cause of this abnormal tracer localization. We present a patient with a frontal meningioma that was evaluated using 99mTc-methylene-diphosphonate bone scintigraphy, head computed tomography, and skull radiography; the homogeneous density seen in the radiographic studies corresponded to the area of bone-seeking-agent localization shown in the scintigram. At autopsy, bony tissue and a few psammoma bodies were found in the meningioma, and apparently accounted for the bone-tracer localization. There was no calvarial erosion and no formation of reactive bone. If skull-radiographic studies show a homogeneous, radio-opaque lesion with no reactive changes in the adjacent skull, a meningioma showing a localization of a bone-seeking radiopharmaceutical may be predicted to have bone-tissue formation with or without psammoma bodies.

Publication types

  • Case Reports
  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Brain / pathology
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Meningeal Neoplasms / diagnostic imaging*
  • Meningeal Neoplasms / pathology
  • Meningioma / diagnostic imaging*
  • Meningioma / pathology
  • Radionuclide Imaging
  • Technetium Tc 99m Medronate*
  • Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Substances

  • Technetium Tc 99m Medronate