Primary demyelinating disease simulating glioma of the corpus callosum

Abstract

Computerized tomography (CT) has made it easier to distinguish tumoral from nontumoral diseases of the CNS. In the presence of mass effect, this distinction may be difficult or impossible to make. Primary demyelinating disease may occasionally present as a focal cerebral mass. Three [human] cases are reported of primary demyelinating disease of the brain involving the corpus callosum and periventricular white matter and associated with mass effect, which proved difficult to differentiate from infiltrating butterfly gliomas.