Characteristics of Intracranial Cavernous Malformation of MRI : Correlation between Hemorrhage and Location

The cavernous malformation is increasingly recognized as a vascular malformation of the brain that presents with seizures, hemohhage, or neurologic deficit. We have identified 24 lesions in 12 patients that were diagnosed cavernous malformation of the brain based on the findings of follow-up magnetic resonance image and sugical biopsy. The location of the lesions were the supratentorial area in 20 and infratentorial area in 4. Ten lesions were seen at the periventricular white matter. Combined venous angioma was noted in 4 patients. The appearance of the lesions classified by signal intensities on MRI was divided into reticular pattern in 11, punctate pattern in 9, hematoma pattern in 3, and cystic pattern in one. Recent hemorrhage was identified at 9 lesions that classified into extralesional type in 5 and intralesion type in 4. Among 9 hemorrhagic lesions, eight lesions were located at the periventricular white matter and six lesions showed reticular patterns. We concludedthat the correlation between the evidence of recent hemorrhage and location and pattern of the lesions should be evaluated to predict possibility of rebleeding of the cavernous malformation.