Intracranial Abscess with Unusual MR Features

Abstract

Characterization of necrotic intracranial masses by means of computed tomography and magnetic resonance is always difficult. The pre and post contrast aspects and morphological characteristics of the solid component could suggest diagnosis, but in many cases they are not specific. In unusual cases, the necrotic central tissue could have the specific aspect of MR and CT signals (metastasis with mucinous material or rich in melanin), but generally it is not possible to characterize the lesion with this parameter, because it does not present specific features (hypodensity on CT, hyperintensity on PD and T2-weighted MR images, hypointensity on T1-weighted scans). The case that we describe regards an intracranial abscess with necrotic material presenting a high signal in all sequences. These signal characteristics are typical of tissue with a high mucinous content, so we assume that in this case the hyperintensity on T1-weighted images is due to proteic material from granulocyte lysis.