Diffusion Analysis of Intracranial and Head and Neck Epidermoid and Temporal Bone Cholesteatoma

Abstract

Intracranial epidermoid tumors, temporal bone cholesteatomas, and head and neck epidermoid inclusion cysts are typically slow-growing, benign conditions arising from ectodermal tissue. They exhibit increased signal on DWI. While much of the imaging literature describes these lesions as showing diffusion restriction, we aimed to investigate these qualitative signal intensities and interpretations of restricted diffusion with respect to normal brain structures. This study aimed to quantitatively evaluate the ADC values and histogram features of these lesions.