Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Mansoura Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura, Egypt.
Radiographics. 2012 Jan-Feb;32(1):151-73. doi: 10.1148/rg.321105758.
The petrous apex is a complex region of the central skull base that is surrounded by a number of important vascular and neural structures and can be home to a wide range of disease processes. Lesions arising in or spreading to the petrous apex cause varied and occasionally severe clinical sequelae, which typically result from mass effect or direct invasion of the cranial nerves, brainstem, or internal carotid artery. Because the petrous apex is not amenable to direct examination, cross-sectional imaging with computed tomography and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging plays an important role in diagnosis and characterization of lesions occurring there. Petrous apex lesions can be classified on the basis of their origin into the following categories: developmental lesions, inflammatory lesions, benign tumors, malignant tumors, vascular lesions, and osseous dysplasias. The most common lesions arising in the petrous apex are cholesterol granulomas, which can be reliably diagnosed with MR imaging due to their high signal intensity on both T1-weighted images and T2-weighted images. In addition, one should also be familiar with anatomic variants or pseudolesions in the petrous apex that can be mistaken for pathologic conditions.
岩尖是颅底中央的一个复杂区域，周围有许多重要的血管和神经结构，可能发生多种疾病。起源于或扩散至岩尖的病变可导致多种且偶尔严重的临床后遗症，这通常是由于肿块效应或颅神经、脑干或颈内动脉的直接侵犯所致。由于岩尖不易直接检查，因此计算机断层扫描和磁共振（MR）成像的横断面成像在诊断和描述该处病变中发挥着重要作用。岩尖病变可根据其起源分为以下几类：发育性病变、炎症性病变、良性肿瘤、恶性肿瘤、血管病变和骨发育不良。最常见于岩尖的病变是胆固醇肉芽肿，由于其在 T1 加权像和 T2 加权像上均具有高信号强度，因此可以通过 MR 成像可靠地诊断。此外，还应该熟悉岩尖的解剖变异或假性病变，这些病变可能会被误诊为病理性疾病。
