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Pediatric focal calvarial lesions: an illustrated review

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Abstract

Focal skull lesions in children can be diagnostically challenging with a wide variety of potential etiologies. Understanding the diverse pathologies and recognizing their associated clinical and imaging characteristics is crucial for accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment planning. We review pertinent anatomy of the scalp and calvarium and review different pathologies that can present with focal skull lesions in pediatric patients. These include neoplastic, non-neoplastic tumor-like, congenital, post traumatic, and vascular-associated etiologies. We review the key clinical and imaging features associated with these pathologies and present teaching points to help make the correct diagnosis. It is important for radiologists to be aware of the common and rare etiologies of skull lesions as well as the clinical and imaging characteristics which can be used to develop an accurate differential to ensure a timely diagnosis and initiate appropriate management.

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The data used to support the findings of this study are included within this article.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge Teresa Ruggle for her valuable contribution to this project in creating the illustration for Fig. 1a.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, IA, USA

    Tyler McDermott, Mohammad Amarneh, Yutaka Sato, Michaelangelo Fuortes, Sami Faruqui & T. Shawn Sato

  2. Department of Radiology, Nemours Children’s Health, Orlando, FL, USA

    Pankaj Watal

  3. Department of Radiology, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Vijapura Charmi

Authors
  1. Tyler McDermott
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  2. Mohammad Amarneh
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  3. Yutaka Sato
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  4. Pankaj Watal
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  5. Vijapura Charmi
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  6. Michaelangelo Fuortes
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  7. Sami Faruqui
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  8. T. Shawn Sato
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Contributions

TSS and YS conceived, supervised, and supported the study. All authors contributed in data collection. TM drafted the manuscript and all authors contributed substantially to its revision. TSS takes responsibility for the paper as a whole.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to T. Shawn Sato.

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This is an observational study. The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics Research Ethics Committee has confirmed that no ethical approval is required.

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McDermott, T., Amarneh, M., Sato, Y. et al. Pediatric focal calvarial lesions: an illustrated review. Pediatr Radiol 53, 2699–2711 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00247-023-05795-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00247-023-05795-3

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