Blood flow study of meningothelial and fibrous meningiomas by xenon-CT.

Cerebral blood flow was studied by xenon-enhanced computed tomography in six patients with incidentally detected intracranial meningiomas. All of the tumors were small (< 32 mm) and there was little or no peritumoral edema. Three patients had meningothelial meningioma and three patients had fibrous meningioma. The tumor blood flow(TBF) and the contralateral tissue blood flow(CLBF) were determined. The ratio of these parameters(TBF/CLBF) was 1.753 +/- 0.467 for meningothelial meningiomas and 0.809 +/- 0.105 for fibrous meningiomas, with a significant difference between the two tumor subtypes (p = 0.0185). There was no correlation between the signal intensity on magnetic resonance imaging and tumor subtype, and the findings on cerebral angiography also did not indicate the subtype. The small meningothelial and fibrous meningiomas with little effect on the surrounding brain tissue could be distinguished from each other by xenon-enhanced computed tomography.