Differential Diagnoses

Workup

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Media Gallery

Enhancing subependymal nodules, including a probable giant cell astrocytoma in the region of the foramen of Monro. Subependymal nodules may increase in size over time from one scan to the next, and then stabilize. This lesion had not changed with serial imaging over 2 years. The patient remains asymptomatic and is monitored closely for any deterioration.
Hydrocephalus from a subependymal giant cell astrocytoma in a patient with tuberous sclerosis. The patient presented with acute blindness and ataxia.
Facial angiofibromas in a young man with tuberous sclerosis complex.
Dysplastic periungual fibroma involving the great toe in a patient with tuberous sclerosis.
Gingival fibromas (see arrows) in a patient with tuberous sclerosis. A stain outlines dental pits and craters. Gingival hyperplasia from other causes (eg, phenytoin use) is more diffuse and usually not nodular/focal in nature.
Typical ash leaf macules; the reddish, nodular area at the upper lumbar area is a shagreen patch.
Atrial rhabdomyoma as seen on cardiac CT scan in a patient with tuberous sclerosis.
Nonobstructive ventricular rhabdomyomas in a patient with tuberous sclerosis.
Ventricular rhabdomyomas may diffusely infiltrate the myocardium, as in this patient with tuberous sclerosis. The patient presented with cardiac failure and hydrops at birth. After a period of intensive supportive care and inotropic therapy, she now has essentially normal cardiac function and is on no medications.
Multifocal pulmonary cysts characteristic of lymphangiomyomatosis. As many as 40% of women with tuberous sclerosis have pulmonary cysts on chest CT scan.
Massive bilateral angiomyolipomas in a woman with tuberous sclerosis. She also has lymphangiomyomatosis.
Pre-embolization angiography of the patient with angiomyolipomas shown the previous image. Dysplastic arterial vessels are demonstrated.
Vessels to the angiomyolipoma shown in the previous image have been occluded with coils. This should produce regression of the lesion and prevention of hemorrhage. Functional intervening renal parenchyma is preserved.
Enamel pitting in tuberous sclerosis. Pinpoint size pitting (A) and crater size pitting (B) are visible. Red dye is used to enhance recognition.
Basilar artery aneurysm in a 2-year-old girl with tuberous sclerosis. The arrow shows the anterior aspect of the aneurysm where it abuts the clivus. The lesion was not present on MRI performed 11 months earlier.
This presumed tuber was first noted in the left frontal region. It expanded in size, affecting adjacent structures across the midline and resulting in calcifications still evident in the right frontal region. The tuber then spontaneously involuted. About 20% of tubers may show changes in imaging characteristics over time, requiring close imaging follow-up. This patient remained asymptomatic from the mass effect, and his seizures resolved as the lesion involuted.
This father and all 3 children have tuberous sclerosis complex. The children are now grown up and of normal intelligence, including the young lady at left who is cushingoid from therapy with adrenocorticotropic hormone for infantile spasms.
The child whose CT scan is shown presented with medically intractable epilepsy thought to be due to partial hemimegalencephaly. She became seizure free after partial hemispherectomy. Pathology was consistent with a cortical tuber. She was subsequently found to have multiple ash leaf macules and diagnosed with tuberous sclerosis.
Multiple tubers in a child with tuberous sclerosis, normal intelligence, and well-controlled seizures. High tuber count does not invariably mean poor neurological outcome.
All tubers are not equal. This child has a smaller number of tubers than the patient shown in the previous image, but the tubers are larger in size. She too has normal intelligence and is seizure free on medication.
Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) activates the protein S6 kinase, which enhances cell growth and protein synthesis. It, in turn, is regulated by multiple factors, including insulin, amino acids, the drugs rapamycin and its congeners (eg, RAD001), and the TSC gene products via the GTPase-activating protein Rheb.
Subependymal giant cell astrocytoma prior to stereotactic insertion of balloon catheter as seen on T2-weighted MRI.
Modified angioplasty catheter used in creation of surgical tract for astrocytoma resection.
Catheter placed in proximity to lesion, balloon inflated.
Postoperative T2-weighted MRI in a patient with subependymal giant cell astrocytoma showing gross total resection of giant cell astrocytoma with minimal disruption of overlying cortex.
Mean reduction in simple and complex partial seizures in patients with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) who were treated with vagus nerve stimulator at the author's institution at 6 and 12 months. Overall reduction in secondarily generalized seizures was 22% at 12 months (N = 17; 10 boys, 7 girls, aged 3-12 y).
Regression of a giant cell astrocytoma after approximately 15 months oral rapamycin therapy in a 4-year-old patient with tuberous sclerosis.

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Tuberous Sclerosis Differential Diagnoses

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