Corpus Callosum Size in Patients With Pineal Cyst

A pineal cyst (PC) is a benign affection of the pineal gland, its prevalence in population reaches 1-2 %. Etiopathogenesis of PC is unknown, several hypotheses have been proposed. One of the hypothesis consider perinatal hypoxia as a causative factor for a development of PC in later life. Ozmen et al. showed significantly higher prevalence of PC in patients with cerebral palsy (p<0.001). Bregant et al. studied presence of PC in patients that suffered from a mild to moderate perinatal hypoxia. Prevalence of PC reached 36 % in these patients and presence of PC was associated with a atrophy of the corpus callosum (p<0.005). The atrophy of the corpus callosum is considered to be a sign of a periventricular leukomalacia, i.e. an ischemic insult in a perinatal period.

In the present study, we are going to compare an area of corpus callosum on a midsagittal magnetic resonance T2-weighted scan in the group of patients with PC and in the control group without PC. The goal of the study is to determine if there is a relationship between atrophy of the corpus callosum and PC. Such finding would support abovementioned theory of etiopathogenesis of PC.