TY - JOUR T1 - Primary Intracranial Choriocarcinoma: MR Imaging Findings JF - American Journal of Neuroradiology JO - Am. J. Neuroradiol. SP - 1994 LP - 1998 DO - 10.3174/ajnr.A2194 VL - 31 IS - 10 AU - X.-F. Lv AU - Y.-W. Qiu AU - X.-L. Zhang AU - L.-J. Han AU - S.-J. Qiu AU - W. Xiong AU - G. Wen AU - Y.-Z. Zhang AU - J. Zhang Y1 - 2010/11/01 UR - http://www.ajnr.org/content/31/10/1994.abstract N2 - SUMMARY: PICCC is the rarest, most malignant primary intracranial GCT. The purpose of this study was to describe and characterize the MR imaging findings in a series of 7 patients (6 males and 1 female; mean age, 11.9 years) with pathologically proved PICCC in our institution from 2004 to 2009. All tumors were located within the pineal (n = 6) or suprasellar (n = 1) regions. On T2-weighted MR imaging, the lesions appeared markedly heterogeneous with areas of both hypointensity and hyperintensity reflecting the histologic heterogeneity, including hemorrhage, fibrosis, cysts, or necrosis. Heterogeneous (n = 7), ringlike (n = 4), and/or intratumoral nodular (n = 3) enhancement was noted on T1-weighted images with gadolinium. These MR imaging findings, combined with patient age and serum β-HCG levels, may prove helpful in distinguishing PICCC from the more common primary brain tumors, thereby avoiding biopsy of this highly vascular tumor. GCTgerm cell tumorHCG/β-HCGhuman chorionic gonadotropin/β-human chorionic gonadotropinPICCCprimary intracranial choriocarcinoma ER -