Meningioma with extensive noncalcifying collagenous whorls and glial fibrillary acidic protein expression: new variant of meningioma diagnosed by smear preparation.

The purpose of this report is to describe the unique cytological findings of a new recently characterized type of meningioma that has extensive noncalcifying collagenous whorls and glial fibrillary acid protein (GFAP) expression. This new entity, described by Haberler and colleagues, was named whorling sclerosing variant of meningioma. The patient was a 34-yr-old white man with a large tumor in the brainstem. Intraoperative smear preparations showed a tumor with a large number of solid hyaline masses in a loose background and in focal areas tumor cells formed cohesive nests with a somewhat whorling appearance. The histological sections showed a neoplasia composed of innumerable eosinophilic, collagenous, noncalcified round deposits, cuffed by scattered meningothelial tumor cells. The neoplastic cells showed diffuse cytoplasmic reactivity for EMA and vimentin, as well as positivity to GFAP. This is the first cytological description of this new entity in the literature. Copyright 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.