The presence of fat within a lesion in the brain is not only easy to identify on both CT/MRI but also can help narrow the differential. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the spectrum of common and rare fat-containing lesions in the brain that are encountered in clinical practice. This paper intends to discuss 15 such lesions which are confirmed by MRI findings and histopathological correlation. We divided the spectrum of fat-containing lesions into lesions with adipose cells, lesions with cholesterol-rich content and tumours with lipomatous differentiation/transformation. Knowledge of these common and rare fat-containing lesions is essential for making the right diagnosis or narrowing the differential diagnosis.
Keywords: CT; Fat; MRI; MRS; adipose; brain; cholesterol; lipid.