Prevalencia de hallazgos incidentales en las imágenes de Resonancia Magnética: Proyecto Cubano de Mapeo Cerebral Humano

Abstract

To determine the prevalence of incidental findings in healthy subjects of the Cuban Human Brain Mapping
Project sample, it was performed a retrospective descriptive study of the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) obtained from
394 healthy subjects that make up the sample of the project, between 2006-2007, with an age range of 18 to 68 years (mean
33,12), of which 269 (68,27 %) are male and 125 (31,73 %) are women. It was shown that 40,36 % had one or more anomaly
in the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In total, the number of incidental findings was 188, 23,6 % of which were brain
findings and 24,11 % were non-brain findings, among the latter, were the sinusopathy with 20,81 % and maxillary polyps
with 3,30 %. The most prevalent brain findings were: intrasellar arachnoidocele, 11,93 %, followed by the prominence of
the pituitary gland, 5,84 %, ventricular asymmetry, 1,77 % and bone defects, 1,02 %. Other brain abnormalities found with
very low prevalence had no pathological significance, except for two cases with brain tumor, which were immediately
sent to a specialist. Incidental findings in MRI are common in the general population (40,36 %), being the sinusopathy,
and intrasellar arachnoidocele the most common findings. Asymptomatic individuals who have any type of structural
abnormality provide invaluable information on the prevalence of these abnormalities in a presumably healthy population,
which may be used as references for epidemiological studies