The angiographic features of fibrous dysplasia of the skull.

Fibrous dysplasia involving only the skull is a well known disease entity (6, 7). Occasionally there is difficulty in differentiating fibrous dysplasia from other diseases which may produce similar-appearing skull changes. The location and the character of the bony reaction, the age of the patient, and the presence of neurological signs and symptoms have been mentioned as factors in the differential diagnosis (1, 2, 6), but sometimes it is extremely difficult to differentiate this disease from meningioma en plaque in the plain skull roentgenograms because both cranial fibrous dysplasia and meningioma en plaque commonly produce hyperostosis of sphenoid ridge and frontal bone, exophthalmos, and optic changes secondary to progressive constriction of the optic nerves (2, 4, 8). The area of fibrous dysplasia may show uptake of the radioisotope (fluorine 18) but this is not necessarily characteristic (9). Cerebral angiography has been used to differentiate fibrous dysplasia from meningioma (1, 8), but there has...