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. 2011 Jul;21(3):228-30.
doi: 10.4103/0971-3026.85374.

Case Report: Floating fat globule within an arachnoid cyst

Jayanand Sudhir  1 , Chittur Viswanathan Gopalakrishnan, Sathia Prabhu, Swati Chinchure
Affiliations

Case Report: Floating fat globule within an arachnoid cyst

Jayanand Sudhir et al. Indian J Radiol Imaging. 2011 Jul.

Abstract

Intralesional floating fat globules have been reported in cystic lesions such as teratoma of the ovary and dermoid of the head and neck but not within intracranial lesions. Fat globules dispersed within the subarachnoid space are a known imaging finding of ruptured intracranial dermoid. We report a unique case of an intralesional solitary floating fat globule within a multicompartmental arachnoid cyst, with varying locations on serial imaging. We also put forward a hypothesis for the pathogenesis of fat within an arachnoid cyst. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first such report in the literature.

Keywords: Arachnoid cyst; intralesional fat; magnetic resonance imaging.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1 (A-F)
Figure 1 (A-F)
Axial T1W MRI image (A) shows a homogenously hypointense cystic lesion (arrow) in the suprasellar cistern, extending posteriorly to the interpeduncular cistern and laterally to both Sylvian fissures. It is hyperintense (arrows) on T2W (B) and FLAIR (C) images. There is no restriction on diffusion (arrows in D and E). The cyst does not show enhancement on a post-contrast T1W image (F)
Figure 2 (A-D)
Figure 2 (A-D)
Axial T1W MRI image (A) shows a hyperintense intracystic nodule with intermediate signal intensity on a T2W image (B). Blooming is seen on an axial susceptibility-weighted image (C). The hyperintense signal is suppressed completely on T1W fat-saturated spin-echo image (D). The arrows in the images indicate the nodule
Figure 3 (A,B)
Figure 3 (A,B)
Plain axial CT scans show an iso-hyperdense cystic lesion with suprasellar fat density. Note the change in position of the fat globule (arrow)
Figure 4 (A-C)
Figure 4 (A-C)
Axial T1W MRI (A) and T2W MRI (B) images show the changed position of the fat globule (arrow), now situated in the left anterior temporal region. Coronal FLAIR MRI imagte (C) shows suppression of the cyst contents (arrow)
Figure 5 (A-B)
Figure 5 (A-B)
Intraoperative photographs demonstrate the arachnoid membrane (arrow in A) and the intralesional fat globule (arrow in B)
Figure 6
Figure 6
Photomicrograph shows the cyst wall lined by cuboidal to flattened meningothelial cells (arrow) over a layer of fibrocollagenous tissue (H and E, ×400)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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